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THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

THE  WAR  AND  HOW  WE  GOT  INTO  IT 


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THE  DIARY  OF 
A  NATION 

The  War  and  How  We  Got  Into  It 


BY 

EDWARD  S.  MARTIN 


"  T  -rrr,^  »> 


OF  "  Life 


GARDEN  CITY  NEW  YORK 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

1918 


3t 


M'> 


vV 


Copyright,  1917,  by 
DOUBLEDAY,  PaGE  &  CoMPANY 

All  rights  reserved,  including  that  of 

translation  into  foreign  languages, 

including  the  Scandinavian 


«       '  .  • 


COPYRIGHT,  1914, 1916,  1916,  1917,  BY  THE  LIFE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


INSCRIBED  TO 

JOHN  AMES  MITCHELL 

EDITOR  OF  "life" 

AND 
FRIEND  OF  FRANCE 

September,  1917 


441072 


PREFACE 

The  observations  here  presented  are  selected  from 
articles  that  appeared  in  Life  during  the  three  years  fol- 
lowing August,  1914.  They  are  concerned  with  the  war 
in  Europe  and  with  American  politics  as  affected  by  it. 
By  what  processes  of  sympathy  and  indignation,  through 
what  vicissitudes  of  diplomacy,  delay  and  almost  despair, 
we  came  after  two  years  and  a  half  to  the  breaking  point 
with  Germany,  may  be  traced  in  a  measure  in  the  current 
discourses  that  follow. 

Edwakd  S.  Mabtin, 


vu 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Caught  in  a  Trap .  3 

German  Intelligence 8 

How  to  Manage  a  Continent 13 

How  We  Feel  and  Why .  15 

Voices 19 

The  Dream  of  Domination 22 

WiU  They  Get  to  Paris? 26 

Backing  Away  from  Paris 30 

The  Case  of  the  Kaiser S3 

A  Complaint  from  the  Kaiser 35 

The  Pathos  of  the  Germans .      .      ...      .      .  38 

A  FoundHng 41 

The  Unscrambling  of  Europe     ......  47 

Let  Us  Turn  Out  Our  Pockets 51 

German  Kultur  and  the  Prussian  Idea  ....  55 

A  Little  More  Armament  for  Uncle  Sam    ...  59 

Germany  the  Doctor 64 

Thinking  Like  a  German      .      ., 68 

Germany  and  Colonies 73 

The  German  Ideal 78 

"The  Most  Senseless  War" 82 

Military  Provision    .........  85 

The  War  and  Religious  Unity    ......  87 

Military  Preparation 90 

Jekyll  and  Hyde 94 

Non-Resistance 97 

Mr.  Wilson 102 

Plugging  Along  .      ^ 107 

ix 


^  CONTENTS 

PAGB 

Mr.  Bryan,  Mr.  Dernburg 110 

Notices  to  Germany 114 

Mr.  Root 118 

Two  Years  of  Wilson .12^ 

Mr.  Hoover,  the  Rescue  Specialist  .....  127 

Josephus  Daniels 129 

So  Serious 133 

Dernburg  Writes  a  I^etter 136 

A  Bet  at  Dinner 138 

The  Lusitania 144 

The  President's  Letter 149 

Italy  Gets  In 153 

German  Trust  in  Mechanism 157 

No  Skulking 161 

Mr.  Bryan  Goes 164 

A  Sharp  Prod  Needed 169 

The  German  Note 172 

A  Year  of  It 177 

The  British  Blockade .  181 

Plattsburg     ...........  185 

Wanted:  Democratic  Discipline 187 

Have  Patience,  Henry!  ........  189 

A  Credit  For  the  Allies  ........  191 

The  Allies  Have  Caught  Up 194 

National  Defense 197 

A  Better  Military  System 201 

Ancona '.      .      .  203 

Henry  Ford 204 

Girding  at  the  Empire    .      . 206 

Ford  and  His  Pilgrims    .      .      .      .      .  '  .      .      .  208 

Europe  Not  Pleased  With  Us 214 


CONTENTS  x! 

PAGE 

Berating  Mr.  Wilson 218 

German  Peace  Hopes 222 

Hold  On,  John  Bull! 224 

Preparedness 227 

Knowledge  and  Impulse 231 

Americans  Ready  to  Fight 232 

Mr.  Roosevelt 235 

Mr.  Garrison  Gets  Out 238 

Go  to  It,  Republicans 240 

The  McLemore  Resolution 244 

Carnals  and  Celestials .  249 

Verdun    .      .      .      .   " 253 

Military  Preparation 256 

The  Democratic  Army 259 

The  Warning  of  a  Shock 262 

"Only  One  Excuse  to  Fight" 265 

Remarks  from  Monaco 269 

The  Issue  of  the  Lusitania 271 

An  Answer  from  Berlin 274 

The  Army  Bill    .  _ .  277 

Mr.  Wilson  Makes  a  Speech 279 

Hughes  Nominated  . 281 

Mexico  Our  Training  Field 285 

TheMihtia 289 

The  Colonel  Declines .      .  292 

A  Respite  from  the  Job 294 

A  Submarine  Arrives 296 

The  War  m  its  Third  Year 298 

Two  Great  Conceptions  Opposed 302 

Hughes  Speaks 304 

Railroad  Strikes 306 


xii  CONTENTS 

-►              ,    -                '-  PAGE 

Rising  Hatreds .  309 

Russia  the  Great  Gamble 311 

"Thrice  Tested" 313 

"Out  to  Beat  the  Rich" 316 

Does  the  Country  Want  the  Republicans  Back?    .  321 

Submarines  off  Nantucket 326 

Lined  Up  with  the  Hyphens 328 

Hughes  is  Faithful    .........  330 

End  of  the  Campaign     . 334 

Mr.  Wilson  Wins  Out 338 

Hopes  Renewed  . 341 

Christmas,  1916 344 

Lloyd  George      .      .      .  : 347 

Peace  Proposals 349 

Are  We  Ossified? 350 

Mr.  Wilson  Asks  for  Peace  Terms 353 

Alas  for  Germany! 356 

The  Allies  Reply ,  ^      .      .  359 

British  Strength  and  German  Dearth    ....  364 

American  Apathy 3G6 

Germany  Avoids  a  Show-Down 369 

Establishment  vs.  Dissent 372 

"Peace  Without  Victory" 378 

Germany  to  the  Rescue 383 

Time  to  Do  Something 388 

Bagdad .393 

The  Czar  is  Out 395 

Easter  in  War  Time 398 

Into  the  War  at  Last 401 

Mr.  Wilson  as  a  Fighter 404 

Two  Years  After 406 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

THE  WAR  AND  HOW  WE  GOT  INTO  IT 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

THE  WAR  AND  HOW  WE  GOT  INTO  IT 

August  13,  IQlJf. 

IS  IT  that  armament  is  a  trap  and  Europe  is 
caught  in  it? 
What  is  the  inwardness  of  these  proceedings 
which  now,  at  this  writing,  have  for  ten  days  been 
going  day  by  day  from  bad  to  worse,  and  read  so 
Caught  in  entirely  unlike  real  life  and  so  much  like 
a  Tray      a  forecast-story  by  H.  G.  Wells? 

Is  it  all  happening — has  it  all  happened — logically, 
because  the  causes  and  the  means  were  there  and  the 
clock  had  struck?  Or  is  it  Germany's  put-up  job 
again,  like  the  war  of  1870? 

The  extraordinary  mix-up  of  it!  A  Slav-and- 
Teuton  row  in  Austria,  that  within  ten  days  brings 
every  gun  in  Europe  out  of  its  rack,  fills  France  and 
Germany  with  weeping  women,  sends  German  ships 
scurrying  to  port  or  holds  them  there,  and  closes 
every  stock  exchange  in  the  world!  The  mere  wash 
of  this  disturbance,  look  what  it  does  to  us!  Our 
stock  exchanges  closed  for  the  first  time  since  1873, 
our  values  disordered,  our  blessed  tourists  by  the 
thousand  running  hither  and  yon  in  Europe,  their 
credits  useless  and  no  ships  to  bring  them  home !  It 
is  like  being  caught  in  a  vast  flood,  an  overwhelming 
torrent  of  hate  and  sudden  death  from  Europe's 
broken  dam.  We  clutch  at  the  newspapers  falling 
from  their  presses  in  continuous  showers  like  autumn 
leaves  from  storm-shaken  trees.     We  can  do  little  at 


4  ::.   ,        THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

the  piottieiiit  for  ou,r  own  caught  in  that  huge  welter 
'  of  oiviliaation  ru^^mg  amuck,  and  nothmg  yet  for  all 
those  other  mnocent  victims  of— what?  Victims  of 
what?  What  has  done  it?  With  whom  is  the  final 
reckoning  to  be  made? 

It  seems  a  war  not  brought  on  by  peoples,  but  by 
three  aristocratic  governments:  by  the  tottering 
Hapsburgs  and  their  allied  interests  in  Austria,  by 
those  governors  of  Russia  that  direct  the  irrespons- 
ible absolutism  of  which  the  Czar  is  the  figurehead, 
and  by  William  the  Prussian  and  the  Germany  he 
stands  for.  It  is  no  war  of  France,  no  war  of  Eng- 
land. Italy  as  yet  holds  off  from  it.  It  seems  to 
spell  Austria's  desperation,  Russia's  resistance,  and 
Germany's  opportunity. 

Well,  it  is  the  hundredth  year  from  Waterloo,  and 
we  shall  see  what  we  shall  see;  signs  and  wonders, 
who  can  doubt,  and  an  upshot  far  beyond  calculation. 

Out  of  all  the  sudden  din  of  rumour,  prediction, 
and  mobilization,  which  has  proceeded  from  Europe, 
it  has  seemed  apparent  that  no  great  power  over 
there  wanted  to  fight  except  Austria,  and  she  only 
about  enough  to  chastize  the  Servians  and  save  her- 
self from  impending  disruption.  Between  no  other 
countries  was  there  immediate  bitterness  of  spirit. 
The  rest  were  prepared,  but  anxious  and  reluctant. 

So,  arguing  from  reasons,  it  seemed  as  if  our 
brethren  must  manage  to  localize  the  war.  For  Eng- 
land, France,  and  Russia  to  fight  Austria,  Italy,  and 
Germany  because  the  Austrian  Serbs  are  unruly  and 
the  Archduke  Ferdinand  was  assassinated  seemed  too 
preposterous  to  happen.  It  is  incredible  that  it  should 
happen.  But  wars  spring  out  of  conditions  far  deeper 
than  the  immediate  causes.  Germany  is  a  great 
and  ambitious  military  power  with  importunate  de- 
sires and  an  enormously  expensive  army.  The  con- 
dition of  Europe,  sweating  under  an  enormous  arma- 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  5 

ment,  the  Triple  Alliance  and  the  Triple  Entente 
watching  one  another  with  weapons  ready,  was  a 
condition  of  long-standing  strain  and  very  unstable 
balance.  Somehow,  sometime,  Europe  has  got  to 
have  relief  from  such  expenditures  for  armament  as 
she  has  been  carrying;  somehow,  it  would  seem,  there 
must  come  to  be,  virtually  if  not  nominally,  the 
United  States  of  Europe,  with  a  central  authority 
strong  enough  to  keep  order  in  the  whole  European 
family. 

As  it  is,  with  the  Alliance  and  the  Entente,  Europe 
was  organized  for  a  huge  civil  war.  Must  that  come, 
and  vast  destruction  with  it,  before  the  members  of 
the  European  family  can  reach  a  larger  understand- 
ing and  submit  to  the  regulation  of  the  family  coun- 
cil.'^ Our  States  split,  fought,  and  joined  again;  but, 
slavery  gone,  there  was  comparatively  little  to  hinder 
their  reunion.  There  is  vastly  more  to  keep  the  na- 
tions of  Europe  apart — repulsions  of  race  and  tradi- 
tional hatreds  without  number,  and  the  family  inter- 
est of  rulers,  titular  and  actual.  Still,  half  a  loaf  is 
better  than  no  bread,  and  a  modified  and  regulated 
independence  may  seem  preferable  to  destruction. 

Especially  it  may  seem  so  after  a  great  war.  To 
fight,  to  suffer,  if  need  be  to  die  for  something  dearer 
than  life  and  worth  more,  is  one  form  of  human  satis- 
faction and  the  quarrel  with  it  has  no  very  tenable 
grounds.  But  to  fight  and  suffer  and  die  merely 
that  the  processes  of  civilization  may  hunch  along 
by  another  jolt  is  pretty  tedious,  and  the  doubt  if 
civilization  is  advanced  by  vast,  wholesale  wars 
makes  it  more  so.  The  end  of  all  wars  is  peace  on  a 
better  basis,  and  the  clearing  away  of  obstacles  to 
the  development  of  the  peoples  whose  development 
shows  the  most  promise. 

The  last  big  war  in  Europe  gave  Germany  an 


6  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

Emperor  and  France  a  President.  The  next  may 
give  Germany  a  President,  and  to  Russia  commission 
government,  and  to  Austria  heaven  knows  what,  for 
tradition,  when  the  smoke  clears  away,  may  be  found 
among  the  dead  on  the  field.  Nobody  can  guess  what 
will  come  in  the  wake  of  such  a  war  as  now  seems 
under  way;  nobody  can  say  whether  there  will  be  a 
crowned  head  left  in  Europe.  All  anybody  can  safely 
assert  is  that  a  vast  treasure  will  be  consumed,  and 
that  tens  of  thousands  of  the  best  lives  in  Europe  will 
go  out. 

This  enormous  topic  puts  all  ordinary  topics  deep 
in  the  shade.  Watching  Europe  is  the  ruling  occupa- 
tion in  these  States  at  this  writing,  and  it  is  a  pretty 
lively  job,  especially  for  thousands  of  people  who  have 
friends  travelling  abroad,  and  who  want  mightily  to 
know  what  is  happening  to  them  and  how  they  are  to 
get  home. 

Our  government  is  taking  thought  actively  about 
them,  of  course,  but  war  is  not  polite,  and  does  not 
always  wait  for  non-combatants  to  get  out  of  the 
way.  Our  friends  in  England  we  think  of  as  safe. 
About  our  friends  in  France  we  shall  think  with  more 
anxiety  until  we  hear  further. 

There  is  a  great  food  problem  coming,  and  great 
money  problems.  So  far  the  chief  function  of  these 
States  in  relation  to  the  threatened  suicide  of  Europe 
has  been  to  assist  the  intending  decedent  in  turning 
his  effects  into  cash.  But  if  the  threat  is  to  be  car- 
ried out  there  will  be  fiscal  transactions  to  conduct 
that  will  call  for  the  highest  available  skill,  and  that 
has  stirred  again  the  demand  for  the  prompt  comple- 
tion of  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  so  that  it  may  pro- 
ceed to  business. 

If  all  Europe  is  to  be  one  tremendous  moving 
picture  of  war  it  will  be  hard  for  us  to  keep  our 
minds  sufficiently  on  things  at  home  to  do  our  neces- 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  7 

sary  business  here.  School  is  keeping  in  Europe  for 
all  mankind  while  these  terrific  possibilities  impend. 
We  are  prone  to  forget  what  sort  men  are;  prone  to 
think  they  have  become  different;  have  risen  above 
the  possibilities  of  such  behaviours  as  they  once  com- 
mitted. But  who,  besides  Mr.  Bryan,  and  perhaps 
Mr.  Carnegie,  can  think  yet  of  civilization  without 
wars?  Men  fight  more  politely  than  they  used  to, 
and  are  less  cruel  in  retaliation  and  revenge,  but 
there  is  as  much  fight  in  them  as  ever,  and  when  the 
l)reventives  of  war  and  the  sacrifices  to  avert  war 
and  preparations  for  war  have  finally  got  too  irksome 
to  be  endured,  at  it  they  go,  hammer  and  tongs,  and 
the  best  men  win,  presumably.  At  any  rate,  results 
come  in  that  way  that  do  not  come  otherwise. 

If  Europe  must  have  an  enormous  revolutionary 
convulsion  preceding  some  new  arrangement  of  her 
institutions  and  the  relations  of  men,  she  will  have  it, 
and  have  it  to  a  finish,  and  we  who  will  look  on  must 
learn  what  we  can  and  help  as  we  may. 


August  m,  19U. 

4  RE  the  Germans  intelligent? 
h\  Of  course  some  of  them  are.  Individuals 
-*-  -^  of  every  pattern  are  intelligent.  But  the 
Germans  who  have  managed  Germany  for  the  last 
sixty  years;  who  believe,  as  Bismarck  did,  in  blood 
German  and  iron;  who  have  made  of  Germany  such 
Intelligence  ^  wonderful  machine,  have  made  her  strong 
and  rich  and  masterful,  and  are  so  intensely  bent  on 
securing  for  her  all  that  may  be  coming  to  her — what 
of  them.f^     Are  they  intelligent  now.^ 

Everybody  seems  to  feel  that  Germany  might 
have  stopped  the  war  that  Austria  had  started  if  she 
had  really  wanted  to.  Not  on  old  Franz  Josef,  but 
on  William  the  Prussian,  is  laid  the  responsibility  for 
this  war.  The  belief  is  that  the  management  of 
Germany  was  ready  for  more  of  the  great  blood-and- 
iron tonic,  and  let  the  war  come,  and  probably  even 
encouraged  Austria  to  light  the  fuse. 

It  looks  so. 

"This  time  France  must  be  finished  so  that  she  will 
make  us  no  more  trouble."  That  sentiment,  frankly 
expressed  by  some  of  the  German  managers,  is  part 
of  the  formidable  German  motive,  and  along  with  it 
goes  imperial,  world-gobbling  purposes  that  it  needs 
a  large  map  even  to  discuss. 

Was  it  intelligent  of  the  German  management  to 
want  to  finish  France.^  Between  individual  French- 
men and  individual  Germans  there  is  not  much  ill 
will.  They  can  get  on  together  perfectly  if  condi- 
tions are  favourable.  The  chief  trouble  between 
France  and  Germany  since  '71  has  been  Alsace  and 

8 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  9 

Lorraine,  captured  by  Bismarck  and  dragged  away 
over  the  French  border.  France  must  be  finished 
because  Bismarck  carried  her  beloved  provinces  off  to 
his  poKtical  harem,  and  she  will  go  after  them  the 
first  good  chance. 

But  nobody  but  the  German  management  wants 
France  to  be  '* finished."  England,  Russia,  Italy, 
these  States,  all  the  rest  of  us,  prefer  France  in  the 
unfinished  French  state  as  heretofore.  We  want  no 
(jrerman  jailers  in  charge  of  her,  no  German  flavours 
in  her  honourable  dishes,  no  German  admixture  m 
her  architecture.  We  do  not  want  any  made-in- 
Germany  France.    No,  no  not  any! 

It  is  not  popular,  this  idea  of  "finishing"  France. 
France  is  too  valuable  to  be  "finished."  For  one 
tiling,  she  is  charming.  For  another,  she  is  a  labora- 
tory of  civilization  where  experiments  are  made  in 
government,  in  religion  and  irreligion,  in  cooking, 
in  art,  in  the  regulation  of  the  affections,  in  every- 
thing. Of  course,  to  finish  her  is  the  idea  not  of  the 
German  people  but  of  the  German  management. 
The  German  people  would  not  gain  a  lap  by  finishing 
France.  They  probably  prefer  variety  in  the  world, 
as  the  rest  of  us  do,  and  like  the  picture  better  with 
France  left  French.  But  the  German  management 
is  a  different  affair.  It  is  no  more  a  free  agent  than 
a  locomotive  engine.  It  has  to  run  on  the  rails  that 
have  been  laid  down  for  it  by  Bismarck  and  the  en- 
gineers before  and  since.  It  has  got  to  hang  onto 
Alsace  and  Lorraine,  and  get  all  it  can  wherever  it 
can  get  it,  and  stick  to  blood  and  iron,  and  load  up 
with  armament,  and  plot  to  swallow  Holland,  and 
plot  to  swallow  Denmark  and  Belgium,  and  plot  a 
German  pathway  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  paint 
the  map  of  the  world  the  German  colour  to  the  last 
possible  peninsula  and  cape.     The  management  is 


10  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

free  only  to  acquire.  It  may  not  be  merciful;  it  may 
not  be  generous;  it  may  not  even  keep  its  word  if  its 
"interest"  conflicts  with  it.  It  may  only  be  greedy 
and  grab  and  rise  up  early  to  keep  what  it  gets. 

It  sounds  like  the  story  of  the  New  Haven  Railroad 
over  again,  doesn't  it.^^  Can  it  be  that  the  Kaiser  is 
the  Charles  Mellen  of  Germany  .^^  They  say  France 
has  only  one  joke;  certainly  autocracy  has  only  one 
story.  Live  and  let  live  seems  to  be  a  necessary 
rule  of  life,  but  it  is  a  rule  that  autocracies  can  never 
keep.  Their  interests  will  always  conflict  with  the 
let-live  end  of  it;  their  existence  is  too  precarious  to 
risk  a  competition  of  strong  neighbours;  they  must 
be,  and  take  thought  always  to  keep  on  being,  the 
great  trusts  that  are  so  strong  that  nothing  can  touch 
them,  and  that  are  able  at  any  time  to  swallow  any 
one  that  is  inconveniently  active  in  the  same  business. 
It  is  the  old  story  again  that  the  chain  that  binds  the 
slave  binds  the  master.  Autocrats  are  no  more  free 
than  autocratized  people.  There  is  a  "must"  for 
Hapsburgs,  a  "must"  for  Hohenzollerns,  and  they 
must  do  it  or  quit. 

However,  autocracy  is  a  process.  Some  things  are 
accomplished  by  it  that  could  hardly  come  other- 
wise. Diaz  was  a  process;  Standard  Oil  has  been  a 
process;  Mr.  Morgan  was  a  great  process  in  some 
respects,  and  the  German  Empire  could  hardly  have 
been  organized  in  a  mass  meeting.  The  empire  was 
all  right  enough — a  going  concern  of  great  efficiency 
and  one  of  the  leading  assets  of  civilization.  The 
German  people  are  very  valuable  folks;  nobody 
doubts  it.  But  is  their  management  up  to  the  date.^ 
Is  it  intelligent  with  a  current  and  contemporaneous 
intelligence,  or  is  it  driving  along  unadjusted  to  its 
generation.'^ 

I'hat  seems  to  be  the  great  question  whereof  these 
great  war  movies  now  proceeding  may  have  the 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  11 

answer  coming  in  their  films.  The  Germans  are 
intelhgent.  In  spite  of  the  large  detachment  of 
intelhgence  from  that  country  for  the  benefit  of  this 
one  that  followed  1848,  there  is  plenty  left.  They 
are  able  and  they  are  well  trained.  They  will  not 
like  to  tip  out  their  board  of  directors  and  discharge 
their  hereditary  manager,  the  genial  and  exemplary 
William  Hohenzollern.  He  is  a  good  man  of  the  kind 
and  liked  and  respected.  But  if  he  is  out  of  date 
what  can  they  do.^^  If  Germany  is  a  mere  Hohen- 
zollern asset  the  creditors  may  get  it,  but  if  Hohen- 
zollerns  are  a  mere  liability  of  Germany  they  can  be 
discharged. 

That  is  where  France  has  the  best  of  it.  She  fired 
her  hereditary  manager  along  about  1793,  and  has 
never  had  one  since  for  long  at  a  time,  and  since  1871 
committees  of  her  stockholders  have  run  her  busi- 
ness, and  done  fairly  well. 

Never  was  anything  so  interesting  as  this  war. 
They  say  that  England  may  run  out  of  news  paper. 
Appalling!  Any  live  person  hereabouts  would  rather 
give  up  food  than  newspapers.  The  Everting  Sun  de- 
clares that,  regard  being  had  to  the  means  of  trans- 
mitting the  news,  the  week  ending  August  6th  was  "  the 
most  interesting  seven  days  any  generation  of  man 
lias  lived  through."  Very  likely;  and  the  second  act 
in  the  great  drama  may  make  the  first  act  seem 
tame. 

We  are  getting  the  climax  of  materialism.  One  re- 
calls reading  lately  with  amusement  mixed  wdth 
sympathy  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  R.  A.  Cram,  re- 
viver of  the  Gothic,  that  we  are  at  the  beginning  of  a 
new  five-hundred-year  period  in  which  what  we  call 
"modern  civilization,"  dating  roughly  from  the  fall  of 
Constantinople  in  1453,  "will  dissolve  and  disappear 
as  completely  as  the  Roman  Empire  vanished  at  the 
first  node  after  the  birth  of  Christ."    And,  then,  Mr. 


12  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

Cram  suggested,  we  will  get  back  the  best  of  what 
was  in  "the  great  Christian  Middle  Ages." 

This  idea  seenied  interesting  though  fantastic,  but 
nothing  seems  fantastic  any  more,  and  it  is  "a  lead- 
ing banker"  whom  a  newspaper  quotes  as  saying, 
anent  the  collapse  of  the  mechanism  of  exchange : 

We  have  been  building  up  this  delicate  fabric  for  hundreds  of 
years  and  we  thought  that  it  was  in  perfect  working  order  and 
was  sufficient  to  stand  up  under  any  contingencies.  But  it  has 
broken  down  in  a  night  and  the  world  plunged  into  a  condition 
like  that  prevailing  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  world  may  not  be  going  all  the  way  with  Mr. 
Cram,  but  it  has  made  quite  a  lurch  in  his  direction. 


August  27,  19U, 

IT  IS  evident  that  the  European  method  of 
running  a  continent  is  behind  the  times;  so 
obviously  and  fatally  behind  that  it  has  come 
to  terrible  smash  and  involved  every  one  concerned 
in  it  in  an  incalculable  disaster.  The  principle  of 
How  to  Manage  this  collapsed  method  has  been  every 
a  Continent  nation  for  itself  with  such  help  as  it 
could  attract,  and  the  devil  take  Europe.  There 
have  always  been  combinations,  but  they  have  been 
temporary.  There  have  been  concerts  of  the  powers 
and  Ententes  and  Alliances  to  preserve  the  balance 
of  power,  but  nothing  effective  enough  to  permit 
any  European  nation  to  allow  her  powder  to  run 
low  or  miss  the  latest  thing  in  guns  and  war  material. 
Think  what  life  in  these  States  would  be  f  they  all 
had  to  arm  and  drill  and  carry  guns  against  one  an- 
other! Think  of  New  York  setting  up  to  be  boss  of 
the  family  and  maintaining  a  fleet  in  coalition  with 
Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  in  rivalry  with  Massa- 
chusetts and  Maine!  Think  of  the  ambitions  of 
Illinois  to  control  the  waterway  to  the  Atlantic,  and 
the  anxiety  of  Missouri  to  keep  clear  the  way  to  the 
Gulf!  Think  of  Texas  with  separate  interests,  of 
California  v/ith  still  another  set  of  needs  and  rivalries 
and  an  army  and  navy  to  back  them!  Think,  for 
short,  of  hot  water,  and  then  of  hotter  water,  and 
more  of  it,  then  of  immense  quantities  of  boiling 
water  under  pressure,  and  you  will  have  an  idea  what 
this  country  would  be  if  run  on  the  European  plan. 

Incidentally,  you  will  get  a  notion  of  what  the 
American  Civil  War  was  fought  to  avoid,  and  of  what 

13 


14  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

the  Monroe  Doctrine  was  contrived  to  avert,  and  of 
the  value  to  peace  of  the  disposition  that  left  Cuba 
her  autonomy,  that  seeks  now  to  open  a  path  to 
independence  for  the  Philippines,  and  that  has  held 
off  with  scruples  that  have  been  so  much  criticized 
from  every  sign  of  land-hunger  in  Mexico.  If  a  great, 
preponderant  power  is  to  keep  the  peace  in  a  conti- 
nent it  must  not  be  selfish  and  it  must  be  trustworthy, 
and  it  must  respect  minority  representation.  More- 
over, it  must  not  be  too  free  with  its  neighbours' 
landmarks.  Napoleon  tried  to  rearrange  the  land- 
marks of  Europe,  and  they  were  too  much  for  him. 
Bismarck  took  Alsace  and  Lorraine  and  Schleswig- 
Holstein;  Austria  grabbed  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina 
and  abolished  the  Sanjak  of  Novibazar.  Behold  the 
fruits  of  those  larcenies!  Enterprising  European 
autocrats  and  their  boards  of  managers  must  be 
broken  of  their  propensity  to  change  the  map  and 
insist  on  blue  or  green  peoples  living  in  yellow  or  red 
districts.  The  European  mind  must  learn  the  lesson 
that  the  American  mind  is  born  to — the  lesson  of  a 
continental  family  made  up  of  diverse  individuals, 
actively  competitive,  but  submissive  to  such  limita- 
tions of  individual  action  as  the  integrity  and  pros- 
perity of  the  family  require. 

Autocracies,  not  people,  have  got  Europe  into  its 
present  fearful  mess.  Autocracies  and  their  narrow 
selfishness  and  their  frightful  blunders  have  fastened 
militarism  on  her  and  brought  her  to  the  brink  of  hell. 
She  will  come  back,  but  how  can  they  come  back? 
Surely  they  are  all  riding  to  a  fall — Hapsburgs, 
Hohenzollems,  and  Romanoffs — for  though  Russia's 
lot  is  cast  in  with  the  democratic  governments  and 
their  success  may  seem  to  promise  that  her  present 
government  will  stand,  she  cannot  escape  a  salvation 
that  has  become  epidemic  in  Europe.  She  will  get 
her  share. 


August  21, 191i. 

SOMETIMES  the  clouds  come  up  and  gather 
black  and  threaten  torrents,  and  then  the 
wind  changes  and  they  blow  away  without  a 
drop. 

So  also  with  war  clouds.  They  have  so  often 
How  We  Feel  blown  a  way  without  a  gun  fired.  But  not 
and  Why  this  last  time.  This  time  there  has  come 
war;  not  a  mere  single  war,  but  a  sudden  cloud- 
cloudburst  of  wars  that  fairly  beggars  expectation 
in  its  menace. 

At  this  writing  that  is  still  about  all  we  know. 
We  have  had  the  furious  blast  that  precedes  the 
storm  and  watched  the  scurrying  of  wayfarers  for 
shelter.  We  have  seen  the  lightning  strike  in  a  few 
places,  but  the  great  destructive  energies  have  not 
shown  their  power  yet.  There  have  been  some 
thousands  killed,  perhaps — the  news  as  yet  comes 
very  weak  in  detail — a  few  vessels  sunk  or  captured; 
but,  as  we  write  in  the  second  week  of  disturbance, 
the  chief  destruction  has  been  to  confidence  and  com- 
merce. It  is  as  though  Europe  was  afire.  And  so 
she  is,  and  no  one  putting  out  the  blaze,  but  the 
available  military  population  of  six  countries  running 
to  add  to  it,  and  more  expected. 

What  we  know  who  write  is  that  enormous  levies 
of  trained  soldiers  are  on  their  way  to  great  battles. 
We  know  the  Belgians,  to  the  wonder  of  onlookers, 
have  checked  the  German  advance  through  their 
borders,  and  nicked  with  an  impressive  and  cheering 
gash  the  prestige  of  "invincible  Germany."  W^e 
know  nothing  worth  mentioning  about  the  English 


lO 


16  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

and  German  fleets.  We  know  that  Europe  is  full  of 
our  friends  and  neighbours,  caught  in  the  great 
conflagration,  and  not  able  as  yet  to  escape  from  it. 
But  the  edges  of  the  picture  are  all  as  yet  that  we  can 
see.  The  centre  is  veiled  still.  No  doubt  our  read- 
ers of  this  issue  will  have  seen  some  of  it.  We  think 
of  them  a  good  deal  as  one  thinks  of  people  who  have 
had  a  look  in  on  the  Judgment  Day. 

The  unanimity  of  sentiment  in  this  country  against 
Germany  is  surprising.  It  is  not  anti-German,  and 
it  is  not  pro-English.  It  seems  to  be  a  judgment 
given  promptly  and  spontaneously  on  the  merits  of 
the  case  as  seen  by  American  eyes.  As  a  people  we 
have  come  in  the  last  fifty  years  to  be  almost  as  near 
kin  to  the  Germans  as  to  the  English.  We  respect 
the  German  ability  and  value  German  friendship; 
nevertheless,  the  American  mind  records  and  dis- 
closes with  hardly  appreciable  dissent  the  impression 
that  the  English,  French,  and  Russians  are  fighting  in 
this  war  in  behalf  of  the  liberties  of  all  the  world, 
and  that  Germany  and  Austria  are  seeking  to  impose 
on  the  world  a  despotic  authority  to  which  it  would 
be  ruinous  to  yield. 

For  fifteen  years  in  this  country  a  steady  fight  has 
been  going  on  against  commercial  despotism.  It  has 
been  a  hard  fight,  the  harder  because  it  has  seemed  to 
many  to  be  a  fight  against  efficiency.  We  think  we 
have  won  it,  and  we  hope  that  in  the  long  run  the 
result  will  prove  not  to  be  prejudicial  to  efficiency. 
But  however  it  may  turn  out,  this  fight  against 
powers  that  were,  and  seemed  indomitable,  has  per- 
ceptibly trained  and  educated  the  American  mind. 
In  many  particulars  we  think  differently  from  what 
we  thought  fifteen  years  ago.  What  was  radical 
opinion  then  is  public  opinion  now.  We  have  thrown 
off  the  yoke  of  the  railroads  and  the  trusts  that  had 
dominion  over  us.     How  we  shall  get  along  without 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  17 

the  guidance  they  were  used  to  give  us  we  do  not 
know,  but  we  not  only  hope  to  get  along  without  the 
harm  to  ourselves  that  would  inevitably  result  from 
serious  harm  to  them,  but  hope  that  in  the  end  they 
will  prosper  better  and  be  more  serviceable  from 
having  been  put  in  their  place. 

Germany,  with  her  stout  insistence  on  having  her 
"place  in  the  sun,"  no  matter  who  must  be  crowded 
out  of  it,  has  seemed  to  Americans  to  personify  the 
commercial  despotism  that  they  have  fought  long 
and  finally  beaten  at  home.  Her  word  to  Europe 
and  all  the  world  has  been,  "I  shall  have  what  I  want, 
and  I  have  the  power  to  take  it."  With  that  spirit 
in  control  of  her  government  and  people  she  has 
forced  armament  on  armament  on  all  her  neighbours 
and  compelled  them  to  the  conclusion  that  there 
would  be  no  peace  until  it  had  been  settled  by  arms 
whether  Germany  or  the  rest  of  Europe  was  the 
stronger.  As  to  that,  we  shall  know  in  due  time,  bu  I 
the  instant  Europe  wins,  if  she  does  win,  it  will  be  a 
case  like  our  case  of  the  railroads  and  the  trusts. 
To  destroy  them  would  be  only  a  shade  less  bad  than 
to  be  ruled  by  them.  Germany  is  a  very  important 
spoke  in  the  wheel  of  civilization.  The  moment  it 
has  been  drubbed  into  her  that  she  is  not  the  whole 
wheel  it  will  be  necessary  to  help  her  with  such  re- 
pairs that  she  can  go  on  with  her  work.  As  much  as 
these  States  are  anti-German  because  Germany 
seems  to  need  the  illumination  of  defeat,  so  they  will 
be  pro-German  just  as  soon  as  she  has  had  her  lesson. 

As  for  the  Slav  peril,  which  Professor  Miinsterberg 
and  Professor  Richard  make  so  much  of,  there  are 
very  few  shivers  running  up  American  backs  on  ac- 
count of  that.  The  Slav  peril  is  remote;  the  German 
peril  was  imminent,  and  Europe  was  justified  in 
taking  counsel  from  the  copy  book  and  doing  the  next 
thing. 


18  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

A  great  war  is  a  great  pacificator  of  squabbles. 
This  one  in  Europe  has  pitched  the  Ulster  disturbance 
out  of  court  and  made  the  militant  suffragists  negli- 
gible. '-J  Nobody  in  England  has  time  to  bother  with 
invented  troubles  and  hostilities  when  real  ones  press 
so  hard  on  British  energies.  It  is  a  good  deal  so  with 
our  minor  difficulties.  '_.  There  couldn't  be  a  great 
railroad  strike,  i^  It  was  no  time  for  it.  So  the  rail- 
roads agreed  to  unacceptable  terms  of  arbitration. 
There  was  no  time  for  any  more  fooling  by  hostile 
Senators  over  the  Federal  Reserve  Board,  so  Mr. 
Warburg  was  confirmed  and  the  Board  completed  by 
the  appointment  and  acceptance  of  Mr.  Delano.  Mr. 
Warburg,  by  the  way,  is  a  German  product,  not  very 
long  out  of  Hamburg  and  only  lately  naturalized; 
and  yet,  though  general  sentiment  is  so  strongly 
against  the  German  Government  in  the  war,  there 
seems  not  to  have  been  a  voice  raised  against  Mr. 
Warburg  as  a  near-German. 


September  S,  19H. 

PERSONS  who  are  in  the  habit  of  talking  ac- 
ceptably to  the  general  public,  and  have  ac- 
quired the  advertisement  incident  to  that 
privilege,  can  make  themselves  heard,  and  are  heard 

.  gladly,  even  in  a  din  of  war.  The  more  the 
^^*  din  and  the  bigger  the  babel  of  unidentified 
cries,  the  more  acceptable  is  the  sound  of  the  voices 
that  are  familiar. 

Not  many  German  voices  are  familiar  here  except 
those  Germans  or  German-Americans  who  are  resi- 
dent in  this  country  and  speak  in  English.  Professor 
Mtinsterberg,  of  Harvard,  has  long-standing  habits  of 
public  admonition.  We  have  heard  abundantly  from 
him  since  war  began,  and  fully  also  from  Professor 
Ernst  Richard,  of  Columbia.  Both  of  these  gentle- 
men chide  us  for  our  feeling  that  Germany  needs  to 
be  disciplined;  both  of  them  offer  us  pictures  of  her 
as  the  long-suffering  defender  of  civilization  and  bul- 
wark of  Europe  against  the  insurging  Slav.  Neither 
of  them  seems  to  feel  that  in  Germany,  as  often  hap- 
pens elsewhere,  prosperity  has  outrun  manners. 

Voices  from  England  come  over  the  cables.  We 
have  had  the  more  or  less  familiar  tones  of  John  Jay 
Chapman,  shocked  at  being  shovelled  upon  a  train 
and  herded  out  of  Germany,  recounting  "the  awe- 
striking  brutality  of  actual  war,"  the  disappearance 
in  the  handling  of  American  refugees  of  "every 
decency  existing  in  society,"  proclaiming  that  "the 
future  of  free  government  of  the  modern  world  is 
now  being  safeguarded  by  blood  and  treasure  by 
Britain"  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Napoleon. 

19 


20  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

We  have  had  a  remarkable  voice  from  the  dea  ,  a 
vision  of  Tolstoi  brought  to  notice  and  repeatedly 
reprinted,  in  which  he  foretold  *'the  great  conflagra- 
tion" starting  in  1912  and  developing  into  a  destruc- 
tive calamity  in  1913,  with  all  Europe  in  flames  and 
bleeding  and  filled  with  the  lamentations  of  huge 
battlefields.  Out  of  the  North,  Tolstoi  said,  would  come 
in  1915  a  strange  figure,  not  a  general,  but  a  writer 
or  a  journalist,  in  whose  grip  most  of  Europe  would 
remain  until  1925.  Finally  would  come  a  new  politi- 
cal era  for  Europe,  the  end  of  empires  and  kingdoms, 
and  the  federation  of  the  United  States  of  Nations 
to  hold  the  world  for  the  four  great  giants — the 
Anglo-Saxons,  the  Latins,  the  Slavs,  and  the  Mongol- 
ians. And  another  voice  from  the  dead  is  Napoleon's : 
"In  another  hundred  years  Europe  will  be  all  repub- 
lican or  all  Cossack." 

Through  the  World  George  Bernard  Shaw  has 
expounded,  not  greatly  to  edification,  the  defects  in 
the  deportment  of  the  British  Government  towards 
Germany.  Bernard  would  have  thrown  a  good  scare 
into  Germany  in  time  to  give  her  warning  of  what  to 
expect. 

Through  the  World  also  has  come  the  liveliest 
voice  of  all,  H.  G.  Wells,  sure  of  what  he  has  to  say 
and  saying  it  with  penetration;  sure  that  "the  mon- 
strous vanity  that  was  begotten  by  the  easy  victories 
of  1870-71"  has  come  to  its  inevitable  catastrophe; 
sure  that  "never  was  a  war  so  righteous  as  is  the  war 
against  Germany  now,"  glad  it  has  come,  glad  to  be 
in  it,  and  keen  to  save  the  Germans  when  they  have 
had  their  licking. 

Twice  Wells  has  called  out  to  us.  In  his  second 
vociferation  he  is  sure  that  the  Belgian  check  pre- 
figures how  the  war  is  going,  and  proceeds  to  the  sub- 
division of  Europe  with  a  view  first  to  save  Germany 
and  next  to  make  the  rest  of  Europe  politically  com- 


THE  BIABY  OF  A  NATION  21 

fortable.  He  does  it  with  intelligence,  so  that  one 
hopes  that  when  the  Pov/ers  get  around  to  this  duty 
of  map-making  they  will  call  in  Mr.  Wells  and  get  his 
views. 

Of  course,  though,  there  may  not  be  any  available 
Powers  left  when  the  fighting  stops.  In  that  case, 
what's  to  hinder  Brother  Wells  from  mending  the 
map  himself!  "A  writer  out  of  the  North,"  Tolstoi 
said,  "is  to  have  Europe  in  his  hand  for  ten  years!" 
There's  your  chance.  Brother  Wells. 

Mr.  Kipling  must  be  talking  to  himself.  His  voice 
at  this  writing  is  still  inaudible.  Possibly  he  is  a 
believer  in  "blood  and  iron."  And  though  Chester- 
ton must  be  talking,  up  to  this  time  of  writing  he  has 
not  talked  over  the  cable.  But,  heavens!  How  he 
must  be  thinking! 


September  S,  1911^,  ^ 

OUR  President  lias  solemnly  exhorted  us  all 
to  keep  our  shirts  on  in  the  great  existing 
crisis  in  human  affairs  and  not  to  talk  loud, 
and  not  to  be  partisan,  but  strictly  neutral. 

We  are  going  to.  We  are  sincerely  the  friends  of 
The  Dream  of  all  those  parties  who  are  scrapping. 
Domination  There  is  not  one  of  them  that  we  do  not 
yearn  to  benefit.  We  do  not  intend  to  meddle  in 
their  scrap,  except  to  help  them  stop  when  the  time 
comes,  and  to  bind  up  what  wounds  we  can  reach, 
and  carry  food,  perhaps,  where  it  is  needed.  But,  in- 
asmuch as  all  of  us  read  and  some  of  us  think,  we  are 
bound  to  have  opinions  on  the  merits  of  the  con- 
troversy and  hunches  as  to  who  ought  to  win  and  who 
is  going  to.  In  our  behaviour  we  must  be  neutral 
to  a  hair's  breadth;  but  if  in  our  minds  and  feelings  we 
had  no  preferences  in  such  a  conflict  and  thought  only 
of  how  it  affected  ourselves,  we  should  be  a  good 
deal  duller  and  more  selfish  people  than  we  are. 

And  behold,  all  of  us  but  a  little  band  of  German- 
born  defenders  of  Germany  seem  to  feel  that  it  is  for 
the  interest  of  civilization  that  Germany  should  be 
beaten  in  this  war.  We  cannot  see  the  welfare  of 
mankind  in  the  domination  of  Europe  by  the  kind  of 
Germany  that  has  been  making  in  the  last  forty 
years.  In  this  country  we  believe  in  democracy,  and 
are  committed  to  a  great  experiment  with  it.  But  if 
the  Germany  of  Bismarck  and  the  Kaiser  is  right  and 
working  on  the  right  track  by  the  right  means,  then 
we  are  wrong  and  proceeding  in  delusion,  and  our 
experiment  will  come  to  grief.     If  Bismarck  and  the 

22 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  23 

Kaiser  are  right,  blood  and  iron,  militarism  and  au- 
tocracy, the  strong  hand  and  the  mailed  fist  are  the 
great  tools  of  civilization.  But  not  with  such  tools 
can  democracy  hope  to  succeed.  Its  hope  is  all  in 
justice  and  a  fair  deal,  backed,  no  doubt,  by  armed 
men,  but  not  dependent  for  its  prosperity  on  armed 
aggression. 

What  do  we  think  of  Germans.^ 

Consider  what  we  think  of  them  as  immigrants  in 
this  country.  Consider  our  anxieties  about  the  an- 
nual throng  of  newcomers  that  passes  through  our 
Ellis  Island  gate.  Dubious  material  for  a  democracy 
so  many  of  them  seem.  But  about  Germans  there 
has  never  been  a  misgiving.  They  have  always  been 
welcomed  as  a  strengthening  stock.  Always,  wher- 
ever there  has  been  a  settlement  of  Germans,  it  has 
been  felt  to  be  a  settlement  of  people  able  to  take  care 
of  themselves  and  to  maintain,  and  in  some  respects 
improve,  our  standards  of  life.  Certainly  we  have  no 
antipathy  to  Germans;  no  racial  distrust  of  them. 

But  we  do  distrust  the  leading  that  Germany  has 
had  since  1870.  We  do  consider  that  her  people  have 
been  trained  to  follow  a  false  ideal.  We  do  consider 
that  the  policy  of  Bismarck  corrupted  her  moral 
sense.  A  great  man  was  Bismarck  and  a  great  deal 
good,  but  he  lied  without  scruple,  and  he  took  for 
Germany  without  scruple  or  regard  for  justice  an}^- 
thing  that  he  thought  w^ould  do  Germany  good. 
When  he  took  Alsace  and  Lorraine  he  overdid  the  job 
and  committed  his  unfortunate  country  to  a  hopeless 
debauch  of  militarism.  Germany  as  we  see  it  now  is 
not  the  Germany  of  Goethe  or  Schiller,  of  the  demo- 
crats of  1848;  it  is  the  Germany  of  Bismarck,  and  of 
intense  commercialism,  and  of  success  at  any  price. 
When  Bismarck  told  in  his  memoirs  how  he  changed 
the  wording  of  the  French  ambassador's  letter  and 
brought  on  the  war  in  1870,  it  was  notice  given  to 


24  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

mankind  that  in  diplomatic  concerns  the  word  of 
Germany  may  not  be  trusted.  When  the  German 
troops  crossed  the  Belgian  frontier  it  confirmed  the 
existing  impression  that  promises  of  the  German 
Government  are  only  good  so  long  as  enforceable 
by  the  promisee.  To  Americans  who  did  not  under- 
stand the  spirit  and  morals  of  the  German  Govern- 
ment, the  invasion  of  Belgium  brought  a  shock  some- 
thing like  the  shock  that  came  two  years  ago  when 
the  Outlook  disclosed  the  theory  of  the  three  cups  of 
coffee.  Something  important  seemed  to  crumble. 
Germany  stood  revealed  as,  governmentally,  a  vast 
and  ruthless  commercial  organization,  bound  by  no 
scruple,  committed  to  the  belief  that  might  is  the  only 
right,  and  ready  to  crush  and  destroy  any  obstacle 
in  her  path. 

Nothing  is  comparable  in  importance  to  the  Ger- 
mans with  being  detached  from  that  terrible  dream  of 
domination.  Their  teachers  and  government  seem 
to  have  an  obsession  that  unless  the  Germans  take 
charge  of  the  world  and  give  orders  to  all  its  peoples 
the  world  will  go  to  pot.  They  are  sincere,  appar- 
ently, in  the  belief  that  the  Slavs  will  bite  the  head  off 
of  civilization  unless  the  German  war  lord  can  bite 
the  head  off  of  the  Slavs.  But  the  Slavs  are  a 
numerous  and  husky  people,  fairly  good  stock,  and 
coming  along  fast.  It  is  conceivable  that  the  Al- 
mighty intended  that  they,  too,  shall  have  a  place  in 
the  sun.  There  is  lots  of  room  for  them,  especially 
in  Asia.  AVhy  this  urgent  necessity  to  bite  off  their 
so  numerous  heads. '^  Is  it  that  the  world  from  the 
German  point  of  view  has  only  two  kinds  of  nations 
— those  whom  she  can  thrash,  and  those  who  might 
thrash  her?  Is  it  an  essential  part  of  the  militaristic 
concept  ion  that  everybody  on  earth  must  some  time 
be  fought  and,  if  possible,  thrashed?  Is  it  that  ter- 
rible obsession  that  has  left  Germany  without  one 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  25 

zealous  friend  in  all  the  earth  and  with  only  one  ally 
in  Europe?  We  people  of  the  United  States  seem 
to  be  the  best  friends  she  has  in  the  world,  the  most 
solicitous  for  her  true  welfare,  the  most  anxious  to 
save  the  pieces  of  her  if  she  gets  broken.  But  we 
don't  like  her  militarism,  nor  believe  in  her  theory 
that  the  Teuton  is  the  Only  Hope.  It  is  no  vital 
defect  in  her  people,  but  a  dreadful  misdirection  of 
leadership  that  has  got  her,  as  we  see,  into  a  war  in 
which  defeat  will  be  disaster  but  victory  would  be 
ruin.  Yes,  ruin  infallibly;  for  there  is  not  room  on 
earth  for  the  Germany  of  the  Kaiser's  hopes  and  Bis- 
marck's purposes.  There  is  no  place,  no  possible 
toleration,  for  a  superman  nation  that  would  dominate 
mankind.  The  Germans  must  be  content  to  be  good 
people,  living  among  good  people  and  polite  to  them. 
That  is  the  best  that  the  future  offers  to  any  nation. 

Meanwhile  the  great  war  goes  on  behind  a  great 
veil  two  hundred  miles  long,  stretching  from  Brussels 
around  down  the  eastern  frontier  of  France.  At 
this  writing  we  still  have  scant  news  of  its  pro- 
ceedings, beyond  what  came  about  Liege  and  the 
capture  of  Brussels  and  reports  of  French  successes 
in  xAlsace.  We  think  we  know  that  something  like 
two  hundred  thousand  British  troops  are  somewhei^ 
in  France,  with  twice  as  many  Belgians  and  ^ve 
times  as  many  Frenchmen,  practising  to  stem  the 
huge  incoming  German  tide. 

The  Pope  is  dead — a  good  old  man,  very  much  re- 
spected, though  perhaps  not  so  useful  to  his  genera- 
tion as  though  he  had  had  a  more  contemporaneous 
comprehension  of  modern  times .  He  owed  his  election 
to  Austria,  but  nullified  immediately  on  his  accession 
the  veto  power  that  Austria  had  had  on  the  election 
of  Popes.  If  Europe  is  to  be  torn  apart  and  reas- 
sembled it  may  make  a  difference  what  manner  of 
thinking  man  the  new  Pope  is. 


September  10,  19  H, 

ITH  the  din  of  Europe  continuously  in 
our  ears  our  poor  affairs  at  home  get  but 
a  slight  hearing.  Europe  is  in  the  con- 
dition of  a  village  with  a  mad  dog  careering  up  and 
down  its  main  street.  We  read  day  by  day,  and 
Will  They  Get  many  times  a  day,  of  the  Germans  creep- 
to  Paris  ?  [j^g  nearer  to  Paris,  and  wonder  if  they 
will  get  there.  When  the  Allies  stand  them  off 
somewhere  the  hearts  of  most  of  us  rise  a  little; 
when  the  Allies  get  a  setback  our  hearts  sink.  Then 
we  feel  that  Lord  Kitchener  is  probably  right  in  fore- 
casting a  war  that  will  go  over  the  winter — perhaps 
two  winters,  perhaps  three.  Wliat  seems  unthink- 
able is  Europe  with  the  German  foot  on  her  neck: 
Belgium  absorbed,  France  prostrate  and  German- 
ized, England  subdued — our  turn  to  come  next.  Are 
there  Germans  enough  to  accomplish  that.^^  One 
cannot  think  it.  It  is  conceivable  that  Paris  may  be 
taken,  but  while  England  has  a  navy  and  Russia  an 
army,  how  can  Germany  dictate  terms  to  Europe. f* 
Nothing  that  she  has  accomplished  so  far  is  incom- 
patible with  her  final  undoing,  but,  as  Kitchener  says, 
it  may  take  time. 

There  are  those  who  hold  that  Germany  is  unbeat- 
able; that  she  is  so  superior  in  the  military  art  and 
in  war  power  as  the  result  of  forty  years  of  close  de- 
votion to  those  details  that  she  can  go  out  and  take 
anything  she  wants  from  nations  powerless  to  defend 
their  own  against  her.  President  G.  Stanley  Hall,  oi' 
Clark  University,  in  Worcester,  has  put  this  idea  into 
words  as  clearly  as  any  one.     Germany's  war  per- 

26 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  27 

sonality  now  in  control  of  her,  he  says,  is  Nietzsche's; 
a  worship  of  power,  whereof  the  ethics  is:  "Do,  be, 
get  everything  you  have  the  strength  to  do.  Pity 
is  a  vice.  Evolution  means  the  survival  of  the  fittest 
and  the  destruction  of  the  unfit.  Christianity  with 
its  sympathies  for  the  poor  in  spirit  means  decadence 
— v/as  a  disease.  The  world  belongs  to  those  who 
have  the  might  to  get  it,  and  treaties,  peace-pacts, 
arbitration,  are  mere  points  of  strategy  to  deceive 
other  nations."  This  philosophy.  Dr.  Hall  says,  has 
taken  a  deeper  hold  of  the  German  mind  than  any 
other  ever  has  since  Hegel.  A  large  proportion  of 
Germany's  ablest  men  have  done  nothing  but  study 
war,  and  that  so  secretly  that  the  other  nations  of 
Europe  have  been  taken  unawares.  The  war,  so  far, 
follows  Bernhardi's  book,  and  probably  will  to  the 
end,  barring  accidents.  No  power.  Dr.  Hall  thinks, 
could  resist  Germany's  five  and  a  half  millions  of 
armed  men,  trained  to  the  last  point  of  warfare. 

Perhaps  not,  but  most  of  us  Americans  will  live, 
barring  accidents,  to  see.  If  Germany's  controlling 
mind  has  been  formed  by  Nietzsche  and  her  hands 
taught  to  make  his  theories  good,  then  in  very  truth 
a  mad  dog  is  loose  in  the  main  street  of  Europe.  But 
what  happens  to  mad  dogs?  They  give  the  villagers 
a  frightful  scare;  they  bring  death  to  some,  but  in 
the  end,  poor  creatures,  if  they  are  not  killed  they 
die  of  their  disease. 

Nietzsche's  philosophy  and  militarism  are  fatal 
diseases.  In  so  far  as  Germany  has  get  them  she  will 
die.     There  is  death  in  them,  not  life. 

It  is  impossible  that  this  Nietzsche  rabies  runs  all 
through  Germany.  It  will  have  to  be  localized  and 
expelled.  Dr.  Hall's  conclusions  are  not  to  his  own 
liking.  He  does  not  wish  to  see  them  come  true, 
and  if  he  is  a  prudent  man  he  will  hedge  on  them.  If 
he  can  find  some  one  to  give  him  fair  odds  against  the 


28  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

proposition  that  the  meek  shall  inherit  the  earth, 
let  him  bet  a  little  something  on  the  meek.  They  are 
a  much  better  risk  than  Dr.  Hall  seems  to  think.  A 
deep  principle  of  human  life  works  for  them  im- 
mutably, and  once  they  start  fighting  they  are  liable 
to  keep  at  it  in  their  modest  way  for  a  long  time. 

The  Nietzsche-Bernhardi  theory  is  incredible  to 
ordinary  people.  They  think  it  is  a  crazy  man's 
joke.  But  once  they  learn  it  is  real,  there  is  nothing 
to  do  but  beat  it  or  die.  Life  in  a  Nietzsche-Bern- 
hardi world  would  not  be  worth  living.  At  this 
writing,  after  what  the  Belgians  have  done  and  are 
doing,  and  with  what  the  French  are  doing  for  them- 
selves, and  with  what  the  stubborn  English  are  doing 
to  help  them,  and  with  those  loud  thumps  by  Russia 
at  Germany's  back  door,  things  do  not  seem  to  justify 
Dr.  Hall's  fears. 

If  the  Germans  have  become  detached  for  the  time 
from  their  Christian  inheritance  and  are  actuated 
just  now  by  Nietzsche-Bernhardi  philosophy,  there  is 
no  use  of  making  so  much  remonstrance  about  drop- 
ping bombs  in  Antwerp.  Of  course  they  will  drop 
bombs  anywhere  they  seem  likely  to  put  the  unfit 
out  of  commission.  If  they  have  gone  back  to  first 
principles  we  must  expect  a  war  more  like  what  war 
was  before  first  principles  were  modified.  General 
Miles  says  this  will  probably  be  the  last  great  war. 
No  doubt  it  will  be  the  last  great  war  for  the  present. 
One  of  the  discouraging  things  about  schools  is  that 
the  instructed  scholars  are  continually  getting  out  of 
them  and  green  ones  coming  in.  It  is  the  same  about 
nations  and  war.  The  generation  that  knows  about 
war  is  constantly  dying  and  being  replaced  by  a  gen- 
eration that  has  to  be  taught.  If  this  is  to  be  the 
last  great  war  for  a  long,  long  time  it  will  have  to  be 
followed  by  a  prodigious  rearrangement  of  Europe. 
And  no  doubt  it  will  be,  however  it  comes  out. 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  29 

Meanwhile,  we  have  the  German  apologists  holding 
forth  about  the  Slav  peril,  and  the  German  armies 
using  every  means  to  kill  or  disable  all  their  natural 
allies  against  the  Slav.  That  is  the  way  the  Nietzsche 
philosophy  works.  Relying  solely  on  aggression,  it 
imputes  aggressive  intentions  to  all  its  neighbours 
and  takes  such  precautions  against  them  as  to  force 
all  the  neighbours  to  band  together  to  save  their 
lives. 

Of  course  this  immense  disturbance  of  the  world  is 
going  to  affect  us  in  all  our  interests  and  in  our  poli- 
tics. Our  fiscal  machinery  is  very  much  upset,  our 
markets  are  disarranged ;  a  great  many  of  our  workers 
have  already  lost  employment;  we  are  going  to  see 
high  prices  for  food  and  diminution  of  the  wages 
fund.  The  great  German  workshop  for  the  time 
being  is  dead.  Nothing  that  we  have  been  used  to 
send  to  it  can  go;  nothing  we  have  been  used  to  get 
from  it  can  come.  The  other  workshops  of  Europe 
are  also  very  much  disarranged  by  the  drawing  off  of 
so  many  men  to  war.  These  considerations  will  affect 
our  politics  very  promptly.  In  hazardous  times  par- 
tisanship lags,  and  folks  want  safe  men  in  charge. 
We  want  the  full  ability  of  the  country  to  be  at  the 
service  of  the  government,  and  a  government  ready 
to  avail  itself  of  the  full  ability  of  the  country.  It  is 
no  time  for  selfish  politics.  The  world  is  afire,  and 
our  affair  is  to  stand  by  with  the  best  apparatus  we 
can  supply  to  help  put  out  the  blaze  and  save  the 
burned-out  people. 


September  17, 19  U. 

WAR  is  our  apology  to  the  animals  for  the 
way  we  kill  them.  When  need  calls  hard 
enough,  man  takes  his  place  in  his  turn 
in  the  line  to  the  shambles.  The  story  of  Europe  as  it 
comes  just  now  is  too  much  like  another  tale  of  the 
Backing  Aivay  stockyards  by  a  superheated  Upton  Sin- 
From  Paris  clair.  The  part  of  an  American  citizen 
continues  to  be  to  sit  in  a  chair  where  the  breeze 
can  reach  him  and  read  about  killings.  The  read- 
ing is  wonderful,  but  the  part  is  not  a  glorious  part, 
and  one  feels  ashamed  at  times  not  to  suffer  more 
and  struggle  more  when  anguish  and  struggle  on 
such  a  stupendous  scale  are  going  on. 

Morning,  noon,  and  night  we  read  about  it  in  our 
newspapers.  We  are  fascinated  by  the  story,  so 
unreal,  so  portentous,  so  tremendous.  Whatever 
our  work  is,  it  becomes  a  routine  that  we  go  through 
with  perfunctorily  and  drop  when  it  is  done  to  go 
back  to  the  great  war  serial  of  which  there  is  a  fresh 
installment  twice  a  day.  This  is  "the  Day"  which 
German  officers  in  wardrooms  of  battleships  and  mess 
rooms  of  army  headquarters  have  stood  up  to  drink 
to  these  many  years  past. 

How  is  it  going  .^ 

Not  yet,  after  forty  days  of  fighting,  is  there  any 
outcome  that  seems  decisive  as  to  the  result.  The 
furor  Teutonicus  of  which  we  have  had  warning  from 
Professor  Richard  has  all  its  cylinders  in  action.  The 
Germans,  said  Dr.  Richard,  in  the  Outlook,  "are 
determined  to  win  at  any  cost,  and  after  their  victory 
to  leave  their  enemies  in  such  shape  that  they  will 

30 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  31 

never  be  able  to  disturb  the  peace  again."  That 
expresses  the  underlying  purpose  of  this  war — the 
annihilation  of  all  obstacles  to  Germany's  supremacy 
in  Europe.  What  we  learn  of  the  proceedings  in 
France  indicates  that  it  is  being  pressed  with  an 
energy  altogether  prodigious  and  unprecedented  in 
warfare.  But  there  is  a  counter  movement  going  on, 
not  quite  so  energetic,  but  remarkably  resolute  and 
considerably  effective,  to  leave  the  Germans  in  such 
shape  that  their  neighbours  in  Europe  may  give  due 
attention  to  the  rational  enjoyment  of  life.  Un- 
happily, this  involves  digging  a  vast  number  of  Ger- 
mans under  the  ground,  and  by  the  accounts  we  get 
the  preliminaries  for  that  remedy  are  being  faithfully 
attended  to.  The  Germans  have  made  a  wonderful 
advance  on  Paris,  but  they  have  met  such  a  skillful 
and  stubborn  resistance,  and  suffered,  apparently, 
such  enormous  losses  that  the  question  is,  how  manj^ 
of  them  are  left.^^  What  we  wonder  is.  How  long  can 
they  keep  it  up,  and  can  they  finish  France  and  Eng- 
land before  Russia  bursts  through  their  back  door.^ 

Hereabouts,  frankly  enough,  we  hope  they  can't, 
and  our  opinions  follow  our  hopes.  In  spite  of  all 
the  wonder  of  the  German  advance,  the  Germans 
seem  to  us  to  be  in  a  tighter  place  than  the  Allies. 
They  can  stand  a  wonderful  lot  of  killing  while  they 
last,  but  are  there  enough  of  them.?  The  furor 
Teutonicus  undoubtedly  has  justified  Dr.  Richard's 
high  opinion  of  it,  but  it  cannot  re-animate  the  dead. 

This  war  may  be  known  in  time,  if  any  one  is  left 
alive  to  write  about  it,  as  The  Great  Misunderstand- 
ing. Everybody  concerned  in  it  seems  to  have  mis- 
understood. The  Kaiser,  strong  for  fattening  peace 
and  strong  in  his  conviction  that  armament  would 
secure  it,  became  the  business  partner  of  Herr  Krupp, 
and  gleaned  his  passing  profit  in  the  making  of  guns. 
His  motives  being  misunderstood,  the  neighbours  got 


32  THE  DIAEY  OF  A  NATION 

the  idea  that  he  was  preparing  for  war  and  all  stocked 
up  forthwith  and  kept  at  it  to  the  limit  of  their  ability 
and  beyond.  Bismarck,  a  great  deal  wiser  and  kind- 
lier man  than,  just  now,  he  gets  credit  for  being,  mis- 
understood the  French  when  he  supposed  that  the 
defeat  of  1870  would  set  easier  on  them  if  he  relieved 
them  of  the  care  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  When  it 
came  to  the  pinch  about  Servia,  the  Kaiser  and  the 
war  lords  seem  to  have  misunderstood  everybody: 
Russia  in  thinking  she  would  back  down  if  gruffly 
addressed,  England  in  thinking  she  would  grab  at  a 
ridiculous  bribe  and  had  no  prejudice  against  in- 
famy, Belgium  in  supposing  she  would  merely  whim- 
per when  trampled  on,  all  of  Europe  and  the  rest  of 
mankind  in  entertaining  the  astonishing  idea  that  the 
nations  were  more  afraid  of  Russia  than  of  the  Kaiser 
and  his  Krupps  and  the  fu7'or  Teutonicus.  Was  ever 
there  so  misimderstood  and  so  misunderstanding  a 
victim  as  the  poor  Kaiser! 

There  is  a  new  Pope  lately.  Cardinal  della  Chiesa, 
now  Benedict  XV;  very  well  spoken  of  as  a  man  fit 
in  piety  to  succeed  his  predecessor,  and  better  trained 
than  he  was  in  diplomacy  and  the  affairs  of  this 
world. 


September  17,  19H» 

THE  chief  blame  for  the  war  in  Europe  is  laid 
hereabouts  on  the  Kaiser.  Maybe  that  is 
just,  maybe  not,  but  this  seems  apparent: 
that,  whether  the  Kaiser  did  right  or  wrong,  he  did 
his  duty  as  he  saw  it.  One  may  think  he  did  terribly 
The  Case  of  wrong  and  yet  acquit  him  of  conscious 
the  Kaiser  fault,  of  sclfishness,  of  everything  but  a 
misconception  of  the  contemporary  world  and  his 
part  in  it. 

The  Kaiser  does  not  believe  in  representative  gov- 
ernment for  Germany.  He  does  not  believe  in  de- 
mocracy, at  least  not  for  Germany.  Neither  did 
Bismarck.  Bismarck  doubtless  believed  a  good  deal 
in  Bismarck,  partly  as  the  agent  of  the  Almighty, 
partly  as  Bismarck,  director  of  the  German  people. 
Government  of  Germany  by  Bismarck  through  his 
Kaiser  was  representative  government  of  a  sort,  for 
Bismarck  in  a  way  was  representative.  The  Kaiser 
does  not  believe  in  that.  He  discharged  Bismarck  at 
once.  He  believes  in  government  by  the  Kaiser  as 
the  agent  divinely  appointed  to  govern  the  German 
people.  He  is  not  responsible  to  the  German  people 
for  what  he  does,  but  to  the  Almighty.  He  believes 
— he  must  believe — that  he  is  competent  to  judge 
what  is  right  for  Germany  and  that  when  he  does  it 
he  has  God  for  his  ally. 

That  goes  far  to  make  him  the  resolute  man  that 
he  is,  but  it  makes  him  mighty  dangerous.  Of  course 
he  wants  to  do  Germany  good,  for  he  is  a  good  man, 
and  Germany  is  his  duty  and  his  ambition.  Doubt- 
less he  would  give  his  l&e  for  her;  give  it  cheerfully. 

3^ 


34  THE  DIAKY  OF  A  NATION 

The  trouble  with  him  and  his  theory  is  that  in  most 
of  the  affairs  of  men  many  heads  are  better  than  one. 
In  spite  of  the  craziness  of  mobs,  the  sanity  of  many 
minds  is  more  durable  and  less  subject  to  delusion 
than  the  sanity  of  one  mind.  The  successful  kings 
and  emperors  nowadays  are  persons  employed  by  the 
people  they  nominally  govern.  Some  of  the  em- 
ployed kings  are  very  valuable  and  useful,  but 
"divine  right"  rulers  like  the  Kaiser,  however  good 
and  able  and  sincere,  are  utterly  out  of  date  in  for- 
ward-looking countries  in  this  age  of  the  world. 

To  us  who  believe  and  hope  in  democracy  the 
Kaiser  seems  a  tragedy.  He  has  hitched  his  wagon 
to  the  wrong  star.  He  is  able,  he  is  engaging,  he  is 
likeable,  a  good  husband,  a  dutiful  father,  a  good 
man.  He  would  have  made  a  tip-top  Kaiser  if  only 
he  could  have  got  on  a  contemporary  basis  with  the 
German  people  and  realized  that  they  should  be  his 
boss  and  not  he  theirs.  Employed  by  them  he  might 
be  useful,  for  they  like  him  and  he  them,  but  an  au- 
tocratic ruler  for  such  a  people  as  the  modern  Ger- 
mans is  an  anachronism,  and  the  probable  fate  of 
the  Kaiser  is  to  prove  it  so.  The  great  destructive 
machine  which  he  has  spent  his  strength  to  perfect 
has  got  away  from  him,  and  is  doing  its  appointed 
work  of  devastation.  Where  he  will  be,  or  in  what 
case,  when  its  wheels  cease  to  turn  no  one  can  foretell. 


September  2Jf,  19 H. 

THE  complaint  of  the  German  Kaiser  to  our 
Mr.  Wilson  about  the  thousands  of  dum-dum 
bullets  found  in  the  French  fort  of  Longwy 
affords  affecting  evidence  of  the  Kaiser's  disposition 
to  swallow  what  is  handed  to  him.  This  is  the 
A  Qpm'plaint  Kaiser's  first  considerable  war,  and 
from  the  Kaiser  having  had,  probably,  little  practice  in 
separating  true  news  from  false,  he  doubtless  be- 
lieves that  all  his  good  Germans  have  been  behaving 
like  gentlemen,  and  that  the  Belgians,  French,  and 
British  have  done  many  reprehensible  naughtinesses. 
In  this  country,  where  our  minds  are  newspaper-fed, 
and  where  to  cut  a  pack  of  lies  and  turn  up  the  truth 
is  an  exploit  done  instinctively  and  repeatedly  in  the 
course  of  the  day's  reading,  we  have  learned  to  take 
all  reports  of  atrocities  in  war  with  allowances.  Con- 
sider our  recent  war  in  Colorado,  and  the  incident  of 
the  militia  and  the  burning  of  the  miners'  camp. 
The  various  versions  of  that  story  contradict  one 
another  just  as  the  versions  of  the  story  of  Lou  vain 
do. 

If  Mr.  Wilson  should  reply  to  the  Kaiser's  remon- 
strance, "Well,  Kaiser,  everybody's  doin'  it,"  that 
would  indicate  one  way  to  deal  with  atrocity  stories. 
Either  believe  all  you  read  from  both  sides  or  else 
reject  all.  But  to  believe  all  the  tales  of  German 
cruelties  and  reject  all  the  tales  of  anti-German 
cruelties  is  not  intelligent.  War  is  terribly  cruel.  It 
lets  loose  hordes  of  men,  the  bulk  of  whom  are  hu- 
mane but  including  many  who  are  not  humane. 
Moreover,  war  excites  and  intensifies  the  passions, 

35 


36  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

and  may  brutalize  even  the  kindly.  It  is  not  in- 
credible that  Belgian  peasants,  infuriated  by  their 
suffermgs,  took  dreadful  vengeance  on  wounded  Ger- 
mans. And,  of  course,  it  is  not  incredible  that  some 
Germans  took  terrible  vengeance  on  helpless  Bel- 
gians. When  ^ve  or  six  million  men  are  practising 
to  kill  one  another,  why  bother  about  these  details 
or  fret  because  some  women  and  children  and  other 
non-combatants  are  killed.^  It  is  the  war  that  is 
terrible,  not  these  poor,  dreadful  incidents  of  it.  To 
try  to  make  war  nice  is  poppycock.  After  we  have 
read  of  trenches  filled  and  fields  heaped  with  dead 
young  Germans  at  Liege,  and  with  Germans  and 
Frenchmen  and  Englishmen  along  a  line  two  hundred 
miles  wide  from  Liege  to  Paris,  this  protest  from  the 
Kaiser  about  dum-dum  bullets  sounds  like  a  joke. 

The  poor  Kaiser !  The  papers  quote  the  late  Gen- 
eral Grierson,  who  had  been  military  attache  at  Ber- 
lin, as  saying  of  him:  "He's  all  right;  he's  a  gentle- 
man.   But  those  around  him  are  perfectly  poisonous." 

Jiist  how  much  hand,  immediately  and  personally, 
the  Kaiser  had  in  bringing  on  the  war  is  not  known 
yet,  but  a  theory  that  commends  itself  to  credulity 
holds  the  poisonous  Prussian  war  party  responsible 
for  getting  Germany  into  this  war  while  the  Kaiser 
was  off  on  his  summer  holiday  in  Norway.  The  pro- 
ceedings as  to  the  stiffening  of  Austria's  backbone  in 
her  dealings  with  Servia  were  doubtless  agreed  upon 
before  the  Kaiser  left  his  capital.  Austria  was  to 
mobilize  against  Servia,  but  it  seems  to  have  been 
expected,  and  there  seems  to  have  been  a  supposition 
that  it  had  been  arranged,  that  Russia  would  do 
nothing  more  than  protest  in  Servia's  behalf.  But 
when  Russia  fooled  this  expectation  by  mobilizing, 
the  Kaiser  was  away,  and  then,  apparently,  the 
Crown  Prince  and  all  the  fire-eaters  rushed  matters 
so  hard  that  before  the  Kaiser  could  get  back  the 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  37 

country  was  committed  to  fight  Russia.  That  meant 
France,  too,  and  then,  to  Germany's  horror,  England 
joined  them,  leaving  German  diplomacy  flat  on  its 
back  and  the  war  squad  in  control  of  everything. 

If  that  is  a  true  story,  and  the  Kaiser  was  thus 
caught  in  the  machinery  he  had  so  laboured  to  create, 
still  it  was  his  machinery  that  caught  him,  and  it  all 
only  illustrates  the  saying  that  those  who  live  by  the 
sword  shall  perish  by  the  sword. 

The  war  news  at  this  writing  is  all  of  a  successful 
stand  by  the  Allies  in  France  on  the  line  from  Paris  to 
Verdun,  and  the  driving  back  of  the  Germans.  But 
we  only  know  generally  what  is  going  on.  It  is  fight, 
fight,  fight;  a  tremendous  engagement  of  huge  armies 
along  a  long  line,  with  apparent  advantage  for  the  Allies. 
If  the  defenders  merely  hold  their  own  in  this  fighting 
they  are  ahead.  For  the  Germans  to  hold  their  own 
is  not  enough.     They  must  conquer  or  get  out. 

All  the  forecasts  of  students  and  predictions  of 
prophets,  seers,  wizards,  witches,  ho\j  men,  clair- 
voyants and  soothsayers  have  been  widely  published 
and  have  made  interesting  reading  of  late.  We  all 
want  to  see  a  little  farther  ahead  than  the  unaided 
vision  can  penetrate.  Some  attractive  long-distance 
prophecies  have  set  November  as  the  month  in  which 
the  Kaiser  is  to  lose  his  empire.  That  may  follow, 
of  course,  if  this  enormous  battle  between  Paris  and 
Verdun  goes  decisively  against  the  invaders  and  the 
Russian  successes  continue. 

There  is  a  pious  beauty  about  the  phrasing  of  the 
little  proclamation  in  which  President  Wilson  calls 
upon  "all  God-fearing  persons"  to  pray  on  October 
4th  for  the  restoration  of  peace  in  Europe.  It  reads 
like  a  collect  out  of  the  Episcopal  prayer  book. 
Europe's  needs  are  urgent.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  though, 
that  she  will  not  be  past  praying  for  on  the  first 
Sunday  in  October. 


September  21^,  191^, 

NO  DOUBT  in  our  character  as  neutrals  we 
ouglit  to  be  as  sorry  as  we  can  for  everybody 
involved  in  the  great  war,  without  stopping 
to  be  over-nice  in  apportioning  blame;  sorry  for  the 
Kaiser  because  he  has  been  caught  in  his  own  ma- 
The  Pathos  of  chinery;  sorry  for  France  and  England 
the  Germans  and  Germany  because,  being  consider- 
ably civilized,  they  should  not  be  under  the  terrible 
cost  and  inconvenience  of  battling  with  one  an- 
other; sorry  for  the  Serbs,  and  for  Austria  because 
she  is  such  a  back  number;  sorry  most  of  all  for  the 
gallant  Belgians  who  have  suffered  so  much,  and 
least  perhaps  for  Russia  whom  nothing  can  hurt  very 
deep  and  whose  chances  of  gain  are  biggest  in  propor- 
tion to  what  she  risks. 

And  coming  to  particulars,  we  ought  especially  to 
be  sorry  for  the  Germans.  As  we  see  them  to-day 
they  are  a  pathetic  people.  Germany  has  set  up  to 
be  the  bully  of  Europe,  and  a  bully,  when  one  has  got 
over  being  mad  at  him,  is  always  pathetic.  Bullies 
are  always  stupid.  At  the  bottom  of  their  pro- 
ceedings is  inability  to  understand  something  very 
important  to  be  understood.  They  are  people  who, 
seeing  no  chance  to  get  what  they  want  by  favour, 
are  constantly  tempted  to  try  to  get  what  they  can 
by  force. 

That  seems  to  be  the  case  with  the  Germans. 
They  have  enormous  merit  o*  a  most  substantial 
kind,  and  it  has  brought  them  huge  and  well-earned 
gains;  but  when  it  comes  to  getting  anything  by 
favour  there  is  nothing  coming  to  them.     In  his 

38 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  39 

present  stage  of  development,  the  German  is  the  fat 
man  of  Europe  whom  nobody  loves.  Individual 
Germans  are  beloved,  of  course,  but  the  typical 
German  not.  A  writer  in  the  Outlook,  an  American 
of  German  parentage,  writing  in  defense  of  his  breth- 
ren, explains  the  universal  distaste  for  Germans  in 
Europe  by  saying: 

The  average  German,  whom  the  foreigner  sees,  is  aggressive, 
self-assertive,  loud  in  his  manner  and  talk,  inconsiderate,  petty, 
pompous,  dictatorial,  without  humour;  in  a  word,  bumptious. 
He  has,  in  many  cases,  exceedingly  bad  table  manners  and  an 
almost  gross  enjo^Tiient  of  his  food;  and  he  talks  about  his  ail- 
ments and  his  underwear.  His  attitude  toward  women,  more- 
over, is  likely  to  be  over-gallant  if  he  knows  them  a  little  and  not 
too  well,  and  discourteous  or  even  insolent  if  he  is  married  to  them 
or  does  not  know  them  at  all.  He  is  at  his  worst  at  the  time 
when  he  is  most  on  exhibition,  when  he  is  on  his  travels  or  helping 
other  people  to  travel,  as  ticket-chopper  or  customs  official. 

This  German  apologist  knows  that  underneath  bad 
manners  which  the  German  does  not  know  are  bad 
are  some  of  the  greatest  and  best  of  human  qualities, 
but  casual  observers  don't  like  the  manners  and 
naturally  don't  like  the  man;  so  Germans,  apparently, 
have  been  taught  that  every  hand  in  Europe  is 
against  them,  and  that  they  must  always  expect  to 
fight  for  what  they  get  and  thrash  all  comers.  Hence 
militarism  and  all  the  troubles  that  follow  it. 

A  little  while  ago  English  manners  were  just  as  ill 
thought  of,  and  doubtless  with  just  as  good  reason, 
as  German  manners  are  now;  but  English  manners 
seem  to  have  improved.  American  tourist  manners 
do  not  edify  all  foreign  observers,  but  bad  manners  in 
our  tourists  do  not  have  political  consequences. 
Refinement  usually  comes  with  prosperity,  and  has 
come  abundantly  to  Germans  in  the  United  States. 
German  prosperity  at  home  has  mostly  come  within 
the  last  thirty  years,  and  probably  it  would  in  time 


40  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

have  brought  manners  in  its  train,  and  possibly  as 
Germans  grew  to  be  more  generally  acceptable  they 
would  have  emerged  from  this  terrible  idea  that  they 
must  thrash  all  the  world  in  order  to  get  their  place 
in  the  sun. 

When  prosperity  will  resume  its  refining  course 
among  the  Germans  in  Germany  heaven  knows,  but 
is  not  their  situation  sincerely  pathetic?  Not  only  are 
the  manners  of  ordinary  Germans  open  to  such  regret- 
ful criticism  as  above  quoted,  but  the  example  set  to 
ordinary  Germans  by  their  superiors  in  rank  and 
power  seems  far  from  helpful.  Professor  Newbold,  of 
Philadelphia,  who  fled  through  Germany  the  other 
day,  is  quoted  in  the  papers  as  saying: 

The  war  was  caused  by  a  little  group  of  military  men  who  aim 
at  the  conquest  of  the  world.  They  are  the  most  offensive  people 
I  have  ever  met.  They  are  responsible  to  no  one  for  their  ac- 
tions and  they  lit  the  fuse. 

But  as  to  the  mass  of  ordinary  Germans  whom  he 
SAW,  he  says: 

I  never  before  saw  such  despair  and  misery  written  on  the 
faces  of  people  as  I  saw  in  Germany  when  war  was  declared. 
They  felt  and  looked  as  though  the  end  of  the  world  had  come. 

Be  sorry  for  the  Germans.  They  are  in  for  a 
terrible  time.  At  the  bottom  they  are  good  and 
extremely  able  and  valuable  people,  but  they  have 
been  tied  up  to  a  wrong  conception  of  what  rules  our 
modern  world.  If  the  war  rids  them  of  the  domina- 
tion of  "military  men  who  aim  at  the  conquest  of 
the  world,"  there  is  no  reason  why  they  should  not 
grow  in  favour;  but  no  country  that  all  the  others 
fear  can  hope  to  be  popular  in  a  modern  world. 


October  1,  19U. 

THIS  is  distinctly  a  foundling  war  that  is 
going  on  in  Europe.  Nobody  is  willing  to 
father  it.  One  after  another  the  nations  con- 
cerned have  stood  up  and  made  formal  declaration 
that  it  was  no  war  of  theirs,  but  an  unwelcome  charge 
.  „  ,,.  left  on  their  doorstep.  It  will  take  court 
proceedmgs  to  trace  its  paternity,  but 
persons  who  have  duly  read  the  papers,  white  and 
other  kinds,  incline  strongly  to  the  suspicion  that 
the  war  is  the  love-child  of  the  German  General 
Staff.  Nobody  else  in  Europe  seems  to  have  wanted 
it,  not  even  the  Kaiser.  The  story  that  the  Staff 
fooled  him  with  a  story  that  the  Russians — or  was  it 
the  French? — had  crossed  his  frontier  is  just  such 
another  tale  as  that  of  Bismarck  and  the  Kaiser's 
grandpa,  and  sounds  so  likely  that  we  hope  that  in 
due  time  the  German  people  will  take  the  matter  up 
with  their  General  Staff  and  get  the  rights  of  it.  If 
they  conclude  that  the  war  was  a  mistake  for  them 
and  that  the  Staff  got  them  into  it  on  false  pretenses, 
to  hang  so  many  of  the  Staff  as  they  can  catch 
would  seem  not  to  be  out  of  the  way. 

And  perhaps  there  are  professors  left  alive  in  Ger- 
many with  whom  some  settlement  may  be  in  prospect. 
When  one  considers  what  this  war  is  for,  the  answer 
hereabouts  is  that  it  is  to  correct  certain  obsessions 
that  have  grown  up  in  the  German  mind  as  a  conse- 
quence of  wicked  and  erroneous  philosophy  and 
teaching.  The  gospel  of  force,  of  assault,  of  robbery, 
has  been  preached  openly  and  effectively  in  Ger- 
many for  a  generation.    Nietzsche  preached  it  until 

41 


42  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

his  madness  became  uncontrollable,  and  Treitschke, 
Von  Sybel,  Von  Bernhardi,  and  heaven  knows  how 
many  others.  They  got  it  into  the  more  or  less  in- 
nocent German  head  that  it  belonged  to  the  Germans 
to  dominate  the  rest  of  mankind.  To  get  that  idea 
out  of  the  German  head,  out  utterly  and  permanently, 
is  what  this  great  war  is  primarily  about. 

Secondarily,  it  is  a  war  against  the  whole  idea  of 
militarist  domination;  a  war  against  brute  force;  a 
war  to  keep  the  terrible  obsession  that  has  brought 
Germany  and  all  Europe  to  so  dreadful  a  pass  from 
lodging  in  the  mind  of  any  other  people  for  some 
time  to  come.  It  is  not  a  war  of  the  English  to  crush 
German  trade;  not  primarily  a  war  of  the  French  to 
get  back  their  lost  provinces;  not  a  war  of  the  Bel- 
gians to  conquer  Germany;  not  a  war  of  Russia  to 
get  Constantinople;  not  a  war  of  anybody  for  any 
detail  of  trade,  or  revenge,  or  advantage,  but  a  war 
of  all  hands  to  destroy  militarism  and  the  gospel  of 
force,  and  bring  peace  and  equity  back  into  the 
world. 

It  is  a  terrible  job  to  beat  the  gospel  of  force  and 
make  peace  universally  popular.  This  present  try 
at  it  seems  to  be  going  along  as  well  as  could  be  ex- 
pected. The  Nietzscheans  are  still  extremely  effi- 
cient. Rheims  Cathedral,  battered  and  burned,  now 
attests,  along  with  Louvain,  their  savage  competence 
in  destruction.  Certainly  the  Vandals  and  the  Huns 
had  nothing  on  the  Germans  as  destroyers  of  the 
monuments  of  beauty  and  of  piety.  Beaten  back  on 
the  Marne,  the  Kaiser's  troops  are  making,  at  this 
writing,  a  formidable  stand  on  the  Aisne,  where 
there  has  been  a  week's  fighting,  but  as  yet  without 
decisive  military  results. 

The  German  rush  is  over,  the  Allies,  having  man- 
aged, like  good  shoppers,  to  avoid  or  survive  it,  are 
at  it  now,  ding-dong,  to  get  the  idea  of  conquest 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  43 

out  of  the  obstinate  German  head,  preparatory  to 
introducing  there  some  less  dangerous  conceptions 
of  the  duty  and  destiny  of  man.  There  seems  to 
be  going  on  a  vast  killing  of  men  in  France,  not  to 
mention  the  wholesale  operations  in  that  line  which 
we  hear  of  on  the  other  side  of  Germany.  Truly  a 
bad  philosophy  is  a  very  fatal  thing  and  desperately 
hard  to  eradicate.  If  missionaries  could  have  con- 
verted Germany  to  the  paths  of  peace,  that  would 
have  been  the  thriftier  way,  but  what  could  mis- 
sionaries have  done  when  a  large  proportion  of  the 
Germans  are  abundantly  religious  and  suppose  that 
they  are  Christians  already,  and  the  rest  don't  want 
to  be? 

Suggestions  of  peace  have  been  made  to  our 
President,  but  amount  to  nothing  as  yet.  Neither 
side  is  ready  for  them.  The  talk  is  still  of  a  pretty 
long  war  in  which  settlement  w^ll  be  reached  by 
processes  of  exhaustion.  When  it  comes  to  that,  the 
feeling  of  the  Allies  is  that  England  and  France  with 
control  of  the  sea  can  stand  more  of  it  than  harbour- 
bound  Germany  can;  while  Russia  is  inexhaustible. 
That  is  dreadful  sounding  talk,  but,  of  course,  it  is  a 
hard  job  to  get  the  poison  of  a  rotten  philosophy  out 
of  the  heads  of  a  strong,  obstinate,  and  very  numerous 
people.  Some  devils  come  out,  as  the  Scripture  says, 
only  by  prayer  and  fasting.  We  are  going  to  try 
prayer  on  a  large  scale  on  October  4th,  and  with 
fasting  there  has  been  much  experiment  in  the  field 
already,  with  very  much  more  extended  tests  in 
prospect  if  the  war  continues  long. 

Only  long-distance  predictions  of  this  war's  results 
have  any  chance  as  yet.  It  has  gone  far  enough  now 
to  prove  that  no  one  is  to  have  an  easy  victory.  The 
Allies  on  the  defensive  seem  able  to  stand  off  the 
Germans;  the  Germans  on  the  defensive  seem  able  to 
stand  off  the  Allies.     It  looks  as  though  the  German 


44  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

invasion  of  France  was  a  failure,  but  the  German 
defense  of  Germany,  if  it  comes  to  that,  promises  to 
be  a  very  hard  nut  for  the  AlHes  to  crack.  That  is 
one  thing  that  gives  gravity  to  the  talk  of  a  long  war. 
But  speculation  about  these  immediate  details  is 
futile.  The  mind  dwells  rather  on  the  ultimate  result 
to  mankind  of  these  tremendous  forces  of  disarrange- 
ment. The  most  fantastic  prophecies,  like  Tolstoi's 
dream  and  that  queer  seventeenth  century  prediction 
put  out  by  Figaro,  get  attention  because  they  range 
so  far  ahead.  The  future  of  the  world  has  not,  for  a 
century  at  least,  been  so  utterly  uncertain.  It  is  as 
Mr.  Root  said  the  other  day  at  Hamilton  College: 

This  dreadful  war,  with  its  terrible  destruction  and  misery, 
marks  the  end  of  an  epoch  and  the  beginning  of  a  new  day  for  the 
world.  No  man  can  tell  just  what  the  end  will  be.  We  are  on 
the  threshold  of  that  new  day  in  which  the  associations  of  men 
are  taking  new  forms  and  new  opportunities  and  are  leaving  be- 
hind everything  that  has  gone  before. 

That  is  the  point.  Behind  this  awful  cloud  that 
obscures  Europe  there  is  something  like  a  new  heaven 
and  a  new  earth,  and  we  want  to  know  what  they 
will  be  like.  This  is  not  a  war  of  hatreds.  Hatreds 
may  be  bred  in  it,  have  been  bred  in  it,  especially  in 
Belgium — but  they  did  not  cause  it.  What  caused 
it  was  fears  and  obsessions.  It  is  all  a  dreadful 
cautery  of  life  to  get  the  madness  out  of  it.  It  even 
seems  as  if  the  nations  that  have  kept  out  of  it, 
especially  Italy,  are  half  anxious  to  get  in  for  fear 
they  will  miss  the  treatment. 

Maurice  Maeterlinck,  Belgian,  says  the  Belgians 
must  not  forget  their  terrible  experiences  nor  feel 
presently  that,  after  all,  the  mass  of  Germans  may 
not  be  so  bad.  "We  must  be  pitiless,"  he  says; 
"the  Germans  are  guilty  in  the  mass;  they  did  what 


» 

THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  45 

it  was  in  them,  and  always  will  be  in  them,  to  do;  they 
must  be  destroyed  like  wasps.  Let  there  come  a 
thousand  years  of  civilization,  of  peace,  with  all  re- 
finements, the  German  spirit  will  remain  absolutely 
the  same  as  to-day,  and,  given  opportunity,  would 
declare  itself  under  the  same  aspect  and  with  the 
same  infamy." 

Maeterlinck  seems  to  be  a  good  deal  stirred. 
Probably  he  has  been  to  Louvain.  But  to  destroy 
the  Germans  is  too  large  a  contract. 

Moreover,  this  idea  that  a  whole  race  of  men  is 
incurably  impossible,  though  excusable  in  Maeter- 
linck for  the  moment,  is  a  very  mischievous  idea.  It 
is  cousin  to  the  idea  the  Germans  seem  to  have  culti- 
vated about  the  Slav,  and  to  their  further  notion 
that  the  Teuton  is  the  Only  Hope.  But  "Teuton" 
in  the  German  mind  includes  all  the  races  of  North- 
ern Europe — ^British,  French,  Belgian,  Dutch,  Scan- 
dinavian, Celt,  and  even  Slav  itself,  unless  it  is  too 
much  mixed  with  infusions  from  Asia.  The  Germans 
have  not  professed  a  pious  purpose  to  destroy  even 
the  Slavs  "like  Wasps,"  and  as  to  the  Belgians,  their 
professions  about  them  were  most  polite.  All  the 
Germans  want  of  the  Belgians  is  complete  control  of 
their  country  and  their  great  port.  They  have  not 
professed  yet  to  see  a  need  to  exterminate  the  Bel- 
gians. Germanized  and  subjected  to  the  direction 
and  discipline  of  the  German  military  caste,  the 
Belgians  might  look  pretty  good  to  Germany. 

Of  course  that  is  what  gives  intensity  to  Maeter- 
linck's wrath  and  gives  extension  to  the  sentiment 
that  when  the  final  settlement  comes  Belgium  ought 
to  have  Berlin. 

The  wonderful  rush  of  the  German  armies  from 
Belgium  to  Paris  was  immensely  instructive.  So 
were  the  reports  of  the  exhaustion  of  the  German 


46  THE  DIARY  OF, A  NATION 

troops  when  they  had  reached  the  side-lines  of  Paris 
and  had  to  begin  to  retreat. 

A  terrible,  terrible  thing  is  the  furoi'  Teutonicus; 
dangerous  to  all  comers,  but  especially  to  Teutons. 
What  will  the  survivors  of  those  driven  battalions  of 
Germany  thi^nk  about  it  when  they  get  home.^  They 
have  seen  the /wror  Teutonicus  at  work;  they  have 
felt  the  drive  of  it;  they  have  been  subject  to  the 
orders  of  the  agents  of  it;  have  been  goaded  by  their 
swords,  lashed  sometimes  across  their  faces  by  their 
whips.  They  have  seen  German  lives  spent  as  lives 
have  never  been  spent  before  in  Western  Europe. 
They  will  know  the  terrible  futility  of  that  expendi- 
ture. What  will  they  think  of  \he  furor  TeutonicuSy 
of  militarism,  of  government  by  a  caste? 

Can  they  think .^^  Can  the  common  Germans 
think?  Or  has  the  power  to  think  been  thrashed 
out  of  them  under  military  discipline? 

Our  Uncle  Samuel,  extremely  busy  with  his  duties 
as  Everybody's  Next  Friend,  has  now  on  hand  very 
much  the  largest  stock  of  embassies  and  legations 
ever  carried  by  one  dealer.  He  had  to  ask  for  a 
million  dollars  the  other  day  just  to  use  as  small 
change  in  the  transaction  of  his  borrowed  business. 
Uncle  prides  himself  a  little  on  keeping  in  the  ama- 
teur class  in  diplomacy,  but  perhaps  his  experience 
this  year  may  help  to  persuade  him  to  branch  out  a 
little  and  get  permanent  premises  in  the  foreign 
cities.  They  seem  to  think  of  him  over  there  as 
permanently  in  the  business,  and  he  might  as  well 
recognize  that  he  is. 


October  8,  19 U, 

THE  interesting  thing  ahead  when  the  fighting 
is  finished  is  the  unscrambling  of  Europe. 
The  German  mind  takes  no  account  of  it. 
It  is  all  for  making  Europe  a  great  German  trust, 
capitalized  high  enough  to  give  a  huge  profit  on  the 
The  Unscrambling  War,  full  of  Subsidiaries,  and  with 
of  Europe  "common"  and  "preferred"  and  the 

other  trimmings.  The  German  idea  is  to  do  all 
that  by  main  strength  and  then  keep  it  done  by 
main  strength.  The  plan  has  all  the  charms  that 
made  the  argument  for  our  big  trusts — economy  and 
efficiency  of  administration,  capacity  to  do  large 
things  on  a  large  scale,  and  all  that.  All  the  small, 
independent  concerns  of  Europe  would  be  incor- 
porated into  the  big  German  trust,  and  made  fabu- 
lously profitable  to  the  owners  by  a  perfected  organi- 
zation and  the  extirpation  of  competition.  No  more 
Belgium,  no  more  Holland,  no  Sw^itzerland,  as  little 
England  as  possible,  a  pared-down  France,  and  a 
grand,  gigantic  Germany. 

But  the  English  idea  seems  to  be  quite  different. 

We  want  this  war  to  settle  the  map  of  Europe  on  national  lines 
and  according  to  the  true  wishes  of  the  people  who  dwell  in  the 
disputed  areas. 

After  all  the  blood  that  is  being  shed  we  want  a  natural  and 
harmonious  settlement  which  liberates  races,  restores  the  integrity 
of  nations,  subjugates  no  one  and  permits  a  genuine  and  lasting 
relief  from  the  waste  and  tension  of  armaments  under  which  we 
suffered  so  long. 

So  Winston  Churchill,  first  Lord  of  the  Admiralty, 
and  what  he  says  is  a  proper  sentiment  for  England 

47 


48  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

who  cannot  hope  to  occupy  this  world  by  her  un- 
aided force,  and  has  need  of  contented  neighbours 
to  work  with.  Part  of  the  great  problem  will  be  to 
devise  due  possibilities  of  contentment  for  all  the 
Germans  except  the  military  caste,  and  not  even  that 
can  the  Allies  shirk.  There  will  be  sixty-odd  million 
very  valuable  Germans  left  when  the  war  is  over, 
and  that  is  far  too  many  people  to  be  left  with  punc- 
tured hopes  or  without  a  satisfying  vision  of  the 
future.  Somehow  matters  must  be  handled  so  that  in 
tv/enty  years  Germans  yAU  say:  "After  all,  it  was  a 
good  war  for  us.  It  delivered  us  from  militarism  and 
Pan-Germanism  and  left  us  free  to  live  and  work 
and  trade  in  a  world  no  longer  unfriendly." 

This  war  is  an  enormous  process  of  civilization,  and 
it  is  as  a  process  that  we  should  look  at  it — a  process 
that  came  inevitably  out  of  the  preparations  made 
for  it  and  the  defects  in  the  world-arrangement  that 
preceded  it.  We  ought  to  feel  confident  that  out  of 
all  the  killing  and  destruction  that  is  going  on  now 
ideas  and  considerations  and  concessions  will  come  to 
birth  that  will  be  worth  the  terrible  cost  and  anguish 
of  the  accouchement.  There  is  a  German  point  of 
view  that,  with  all  its  unconscionable  terrors  and 
brutalities  and  its  dreadful  entanglement  with  mili- 
tarism and  the  gospel  of  force  and  Prussian  Junker- 
ism,  is  not  all  nonsense.  These  Germans  that  are 
being  killed  by  regiments  ought  to  be  carrying  their 
civilization  to  the  parts  of  the  world  that  need  it. 
As  far  as  it  goes,  it  is  a  wonderful  civilization,  and  the 
made-over  world  that  is  coming  must  provide  mar- 
kets for  all  that  is  good  in  it.  For  that  matter, 
the  world  that  was  before  the  first  of  August  was  open 
enough,  amply  open,  to  the  German  civilization.  It 
was  only  closed  to  German  sovereignty,  which  could 
not  spread  except  by  trespassing  on  premises  already 
in   hands   competent   to   resist   trespass.      German 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  49 

civilization  was  welcome  almost  everywhere.  Ger- 
man sovereignty  was  welcome  almost  nowhere  out- 
side of  Germany.  That  it  will  be  any  more  welcome 
after  the  war  does  not  seem  at  all  likely,  but  with  the 
fear  of  German  sovereignty  dissipated,  German 
civilization — meaning  efficiency,  patience,  and  order 
■ — may  be  more  welcome  in  the  earth  than  ever. 

Meanwhile  it  is  all  the  preliminary  details  of  the 
process  that  interest  us;  the  details  of  the  fighting. 
That  goes  on  at  this  writing  on  the  line  of  the  Aisne 
with  desperate  fervency.  The  Allies  refuse  to  be 
beaten;  so  do  the  Germans.  The  butcher's  bill  grows 
and  grows;  we  know  little  about  it,  and  cannot  think 
much  about  it  yet,  because  of  the  intensity  of  our 
concern  about  the  issue.  Clearly,  the  great  plan  to 
overwhelm  France  by  a  sudden  onslaught  is  a  dead 
failure.  If  the  invaders  are  to  possess  France  they 
will  have  to  earn  and  pay  for  every  yard  of  it.  But 
there  is  no  prospect  that  they  will  possess  it.  The 
Germans  on  the  Aisne  are  fighting  for  dear  life,  and 
all  the  time  the  rapping  on  the  back  doors  of  Berlin 
grows  louder,  and  winter  is  coming  on.  Terrible 
stories  come  and  persist  about  German  atrocities  in 
Belgium,  including  outrage  and  mutilation  of  women. 
A  letter  published  in  the  Sun,  written  to  Harold  M. 
Sewall,  of  Bath,  Maine,  is  explicit  and  convincing  as 
to  this  latter  point.  This  dreadful  development  of 
morbid  brutishness  is  perhaps  a  detail  of  the  furor 
Teufonicus  against  which  Professor  Ernst  Richard 
so  lately  warned  the  world.  It  must  make  direful 
reading  for  the  German  apologists. 

The  more  thoughtful  people  have  had  no  real  vaca- 
tion this  year.  August  is  the  vacation  month,  and 
since  August  first  we  have  all  been  to  school  every 
day,  Sundays  included,  learning  the  military  art 
and  the  history  and  geography  of  Europe.  Among 
other  things,  we  have  fought  over  again  the  chief 


50  ,  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

battles  of  our  own  Civil  War  for  our  better  under- 
standing of  the  proceedings  in  France.  There  has 
been  no  peace,  no  rest.  Where  we  have  not  been 
harrowed  by  enormous  battles,  vast  destruction,  and 
huge  mortality,  we  have  been  ruminating  about  the 
immediate  future  of  mankind.  It  is  as  though  all 
bets  were  declared  off  and  all  precedents  became  in- 
valid on  August  first,  and  a  new  time  began  on  that 
date,  to  which  the  calculations  that  had  come  to 
be  our  habit  no  longer  applied.  The  jar  of  this 
iransition  is  enormous,  even  here,  where  we  are 
shielded  by  distance  from  the  griefs  and  material 
distress  that  accompany  it.  Our  friends  are  not 
dead,  nor  in  special  peril;  no  consuming  disaster 
hangs  over  us,  and  yet  most  of  us  Americans  are  de- 
pressed, some  consciously,  some  without  knowing 
\^^hy.  You  can't  read  war  and  think  war  all  the 
time  for  two  months  without  feeling  the  strain  of  it. 
No;  thoughtful  people  this  year  got  only  so  much 
real  vacation  as  they  had  in  June  and  July. 


October  15,  19U. 

WE  OUGHT  to  get  into  this  European  war 
harder.  Since  it  is  not  proposed  that 
we  shall  fight  in  it,  we  ought  to  get  into 
the  rescue  work  with  more  power.  Some  of  us  are 
doing  something,  but  most  of  us  are  doing  nothing 

Let  Us  Turn  ^^^  ^^^  cuough  is  being  done.  Not 
Out  Our  enough  money  is  coming  out  for  the 
Pockets  Belgians,  whose  terrible  plight  is  so  pro- 

foundly appealing.  Not  enough  for  the  Red  Cross. 
One  trouble  is  that  we  have  war  troubles  of  our  own; 
that  because  of  upsets,  due  to  war,  in  many  lines  of 
business,  an  unusual  proportion  of  our  own  people  are 
in  more  or  less  pecuniary  distress.  Another  trouble 
is  that  when  six  nations  in  Europe  are  spending  their 
utmost  energies  to  kill,  what  even  a  large  country, 
three  thousand  miles  away,  can  do  to  save  must  seem 
almost  trivial.  Still,  we  ought  to  do  more;  we  must 
do  more.  No  other  investment  offers  such  returns 
as  the  succour  of  the  Belgians,  so  many  of  whom, 
woeful  to  tell,  are  beyond  aid  already. 

Come,  brethren,  let  us  turn  out  our  pockets  at 
least.  The  special  appeal  now  to  us  is  for  the  Belgians 
and  the  French  of  Northern  France;  the  regions  where 
the  war  has  gone.  What  terrible  cries  will  come 
later  and  from  where  no  one  can  tell.  In  Austria 
there  must  be  great  distress,  but  Austria  and  East 
Prussia  and  Poland  are  not  so  near  our  door  as  Bel- 
gium is.  The  only  safe  place  for  Belgian  non-com- 
batants now  seems  to  be  England,  and  there  they  have 
gone  by  thousands  and  are  being  cared  for  by  the 
English. 

51 


52  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

No  doubt  our  great  part  in  this  vast  disturbance  is 
to  mind  our  own  business  and  keep  our  general  ap- 
paratus of  production  and  distribution  going  for  the 
benefit  not  only  of  ourselves,  but  of  all  Europe.  But 
though  to  mind  our  jobs  is  useful,  it  does  not  ease  our 
hearts  much.  Lucky  anybody  who  can  go  over  there 
and  help.  Lucky  anybody  who  has  much  to  give 
and  gives  it.  Those  who  have  not  much  to  give 
should  pinch  and  give  more  than  they  can.  That  is 
better  than  to  be  left  out  of  this  war.  It  is  not 
brotherly  to  stay  out. 

The  interminable  battle  on  the  Aisne  still,  at  this 
writing,  rages  on  indecisively,  apparently  with  enor- 
mous loss  of  life.  We  are  told  now  to  call  it,  not  a 
battle,  but  a  campaign.  Other  huge  campaigns  are 
going  on  to  the  east  of  Germany,  where  the  Russians 
seem  to  have  the  better  of  it,  and  where  also  enor- 
mous losses  attest  the  efficiency  of  modern  war  ma- 
chines. It  makes  for  detachment  from  life  to  watch 
these  tremendous  proceedings.  It  seems  ignoble,  and 
it  is,  to  cling  overanxiously  to  life  when  daily  so 
many  thousands  before  our  eyes  give  it  up.  This  is 
our  battle,  too,  that  is  beings  fought  in  Europe;  our 
destiny  as  well  as  their  own  that  Belgians,  British, 
French,  Germans,  and  all  the  rest  are  struggling  and 
dying  over.  This  is  a  conflict  of  fundamental  ideas. 
If  the  German  idea  wins,  its  next  great  clash  seems 
likely  to  be  with  the  idea  that  underlies  such  civiliza- 
tion as  we  have  in  these  States.  In  some  ways  we 
are  slack,  and  it  might  not  be  altogether  bad  for  us  to 
have  the  German  goad  scar  our  easy-setting  hides. 
Read  how  the  German  peril  has  turned  English 
Aldershot  into  a  factory  for  turning  soft  islanders  into 
athletes.  A  very  efficient  instrument  is  the  German 
goad,  and  wonderful  things  it  seems  to  have  done  for 
Germany.  There  is  a  large  proportion  of  unused 
energy  in  most  people;  the  use  of  the  German  goad 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  53 

is  to  bring  it  all  to  application.  Nature's  goad  is 
hunger,  but  that  is  not  enough  to  carry  civilization 
very  far.  The  German  goad  undertakes  to  cover  the 
whole  distance  that  civilization  has  to  go;  to  prod 
the  whole  world  into  a  huge  productiveness  and  all 
surviving  mankind  into  fabulous  efficiency.  That  is 
the  idea  that  is  now  being  discussed  in  Europe.  It 
has  come  to  the  point  where  the  nations  have  to 
settle  whether  they  will  accept  the  German  idea  and 
try  to  be  like  Germany,  or  reject  it  and  demonstrate 
that  it  is  unsound. 

What  is  the  matter  with  it?  It  looks  lovely  to  the 
Germans,  and  in  great  measure  it  has  agreed  with 
them  wonderfully.  They  tell  you  that  the  army  and 
military  training  is  the  very  hub  of  their  wheel;  that 
it  has  made  Gemany  what  she  is;  that  it  is  the 
greatest  thing  in  the  world,  and  that  to  force  it  on 
the  world  is  to  confer  on  the  world  the  greatest  pos- 
sible blessing. 

Well,  Germany  has  conferred  this  blessing  very 
considerably  on  Europe  in  the  last  forty  years,  and 
Europe  in  her  deep  perversity  declines  to  like  it. 
She  Y/ants  to  be  rid  of  it.  Perhaps  she  doubts  that 
military  training  is  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world. 
There  have  been  folks  who  said  that  love  was. 
Germany  has  not  bothered  much  with  love,  but  she 
is  undeniably  strong  in  military  training. 

There  is  so  much  good  in  the  German  discipline  that 
people  were  almost  ready  to  believe  it  was  all  good. 
Since  the  war  came  that  inclination  has  weakened. 
The  invasion  of  Belgium  weakened  it;  so  did  Lou  vain; 
so  did  Rheims;  so  did  the  terrible  harrying  of  the 
Belgians;  so  did  the  unanimity  with  which  nearly 
all  of  Europe  and  the  United  States  have  taken,  some 
actively,  some  as  neutrals,  the  negative  side  in  the 
argument.  The  feeling  grows  that  the  German  idea, 
with  all  its  immense  good,  makes  for  mania,  and 


54  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

would  ultimately,  if  it  ran  on,  produce  a  crazy  world, 
bereft  of  its  jewels,  with  battles  forever  running  in 
its  head,  and  huge  wars  forever  in  preparation.  So 
the  discussion  runs  very  high.  When  it  is  over  the 
question  will  come  up  what  to  substitute  for  the 
German  idea  that  will  possess  the  valuable  disciplin- 
ary facilities  of  that  system  without  its  dangerous 
tendency  to  produce  military  mania. 

After  all,  efficiency  isn't  everything.  It  isn't  the 
chief  end  of  man,  nor  even  his  main  business  on 
earth.  His  main  business  on  earth  is  to  live,  except 
when,  on  occasion,  as  now,  the  main  business  of  very 
many  men  becomes,  temporarily,  to  die. 

People  call  President  Eliot  the  First  Citizen  of  this 
Republic,  and  Mr.  Ho  wells  is,  by  general  consent,  the 
dean  of  American  letters.  Dr.  Eliot  has  fourscore 
years  and  Mr.  Ho  wells  three  less.  Neither  of  them 
is  excitable.  Both  of  them  love  peace.  Both  of  them 
are  full  of  goodwill  to  mankind,  and  incapable  of 
racial  antipathy. 

One  finds  both  of  these  mature  and  honoured 
gentlemen  in  the  front  rank  of  the  Friends  of  the 
Allies.  No  one  can  have  missed  the  repeated  disclos- 
ure of  Dr.  Eliot's  sentiments.  What  is  going  on  inside 
of  Mr.  Howells  is  revealed  in  his  discussion,  in  the  cur- 
rent North  American  Review,  of  the  Kaiser's  claim  to 
be  in  partnership  with  "Gott." 

Stars  above!    Mr.  Howells  can  still  bite. 


October  22,  19U. 

GERMANY'S  purpose  in  the  great  war,  as 
seen  from  here,  is  to  teach  a  reluctant  world 
that  what  the  German  Kaiser  says  goes. 
In  the  matter  of  disciplining  Servia,  the  Kaiser  told 
Austria  to  go  ahead  the  whole  distance  and  he  would 
German  Kidtur  hack  her.  The  Czar  demurred,  very 
and  the  Prus-     moderately,    as    to    details.      Germany 

sian  Idea  g^^^^  p^^^   ^^^  g^^  ^^^  ggp^^j.|.g  ^f  g^y  ^^^ 

diplomats  could  not  avert  the  clash.  It  is  a  war 
for  the  vindication  of  the  Prussian  say-so;  a  war  of 
destruction  and  extermination  of  whatever  stands  up 
against  Prussian  domination;  a  war  to  parcel  out  the 
world  anew,  and  give  Prussia  what  she  wants.  Prus- 
sia has  dominated  the  rest  of  Germany  so  completely 
that  it  has  forgotten  that  there  ever  were  ideas  in 
Germany  that  were  not  Prussian.  Undoubtedly 
Prussia  is  eager  to  dominate  the  rest  of  mankind  in 
the  same  way,  and  morally  capable  of  using  any 
available  means  to  do  it.  With  the  Prussian  idea  it 
is  truly  a  case  of  world-power  or  downfall.  It  is  an 
idea  that  is  incapable  of  repose,  that  requires  periodi- 
cal exercise  in  the  field,  and  must  be  fed  on  conquest 
if  it  is  to  keep  its  strength. 

That  is  not  at  all  true  of  German  "kultur,"  which 
we  have  so  much  been  told  the  Germans  are  fighting 
to  defend.  The  German  "kultur"  means  pig-iron, 
Ki'upps,  ships,  beer,  chemicals,  music,  discipline, 
military  service,  and  professors.  It  is  the  German 
civilization  and  includes  the  German  attempt  to  dis- 
cover, assimilate,  and  apply  knowledge  and  truth. 
This  last  needs  very  little  defense  by  armies.     It 

55 


M  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

only  needs  time  and  peace.  Given  those,  it  will  con- 
quer the  world,  if  it  is  good  enough,  and  not  a  gun 
fired.  Knowledge  and  truth  are  things  for  which, 
even  in  this  world,  there  is  plenty  of  room.  Of 
habitable  land  there  is  only  a  limited  area  on  this 
planet;  good  ports  are  scarce;  all  the  ready-made 
farming  land  in  the  better  climates  belongs  to  some- 
hody  capable  of  making  trouble  if  ousted,  but  the 
more  truth  people  get  hold  of,  the  more  there  is  left; 
the  more  knowledge  is  applied,  the  more  awaits  ap- 
plication. In  so  far  as  German  "kultur"  was  good, 
it  had  all  the  world  to  dominate,  and  no  objection. 
In  thirty  years  that  domination  had  made  vast  prog- 
ress. But  against  the  domination  of  the  Prussian 
idea  the  objection  is  so  vital  and  intense  that  in  the 
great  world-rising  against  it  there  is  only  too  much 
prospect  that  the  breath  of  German  "kultur"  will  be 
clean  squeezed  out  of  the  German  body.  Krupps 
cannot  do  much  for  it;  destruction  and  extermination 
— the  erasure  of  beauty,  the  expulsion  of  piety — are 
not  aids  to  it.  It  should  be  the  ally  of  those  things, 
not  their  foe.  Alas,  then,  for  German  "kultur," 
ridden  to  its  death  by  the  ruthless  Prussian  demon; 
struggling  splendidly  to  do  the  demon's  w^ork,  but 
fated,  who  can  doubt,  to  sink  in  due  time,  gasping 
and  bleeding,  foundered  by  that  fatal  rider.  The 
pity  of  it;  oh,  the  pity  of  it!  that  what  should  be  the 
world's  example  must  figure  as  its  warning;  that  this 
hell  that  is  heating  for  the  Saxons  and  Bavarians — 
kindly  people  both — is  the  kind  of  hell  that  awaits  all 
people  who  fail  to  fight  off  Prussian  domination 
before  it  has  enchained  them.  It  is  a  bad  hell;  a  hell 
of  Krupps  and  ruined  cities  and  violated  women,  and 
tears  and  misery  and  blood,  and  blackened  fanes. 

Since  Antwerp  fell  it  has  seemed  more  than  ever 
that  this  world  is  not  our  home,  and  the  war  seems 
more  than  ever  like  a  war  of  Rome  and  Carthage. 


THE  DLVRY  OF  A  NATION  51 

For  the  capture  of  Antwerp  seems  a  blow  at  England. 
We  were  pretty  sure  all  along  that  the  Germang 
could  beat  up  the  Belgians  if  they  put  their  minds  on 
it,  but  it  was  hoped  that  England  and  France  be- 
tween them  could  furnish  distraction  enough  to  keep 
them  diverted.  But  that  has  not  proved  feasible, 
and  now  it  seems  a  longer  road  then  ever  to  Tip- 
per ary. 

The  improved  Krupp  siege-guns  seem  to  have 
made  all  exposed  fortifications  obsolete.  We  have 
been  building  some  defenses  lately  to  protect  the 
Panama  Canal.  It  will  be  interesting  to  know  if 
they  would  be  of  any  use  against  these  new  Krupps. 
Fortifications  are  expensive  and  take  up  room,  and 
perhaps  it  is  something  to  be  put  to  the  credit  of 
the  big  Krupps  and  the  Zeppelins  that  they  have 
destroyed  the  efficiency  of  forts.  If  there  is  to  be 
no  security  in  fortifications,  folks  who  hope  to  live 
in  the  enjoyment  of  liberty  and  die  in  their  beds  must 
contrive  new  means  of  protection.  The  peace  of  the 
world  must  rest  on  some  new  understanding,  ade- 
quately enforced,  or  perhaps  we  must  just  resign  our- 
selves to  taking  bigger  chances.  It  was  a  benefit 
to  the  world  and  helped  the  general  cause  of  democ- 
racy when  the  early  improvements  in  cannon  put  old- 
time  city  walls  out  of  use.  City  dwellers  have  had 
more  room  ever  since,  and  trade  has  been  freer.  Like 
advantages  may  come  in  the  end  out  of  the  current 
improvements  in  war  which  have  made  it  too  effi- 
cient. When  all  modern  knowledge  and  all  the  re- 
sources of  modern  industry  are  concentrated  on  the 
work  of  killing  men  by  wholesale  and  destroying  all 
their  works,  a  degree  of  success  is  attained  which  is 
self-decapitating.  Questions  like  this  current  one, 
whether  the  Prussian  Idea  is  the  Only  Hope  and  the 
Kaiser  the  Preferred  Instrument  of  the  Almighty, 
are,  of  course,  very  interesting  indeed  to  discuss,  but 


58  THE  DIAHY  OF  A  NATION 

even  to  the  Prussians  themselves  the  discussion  will 
seem  too  dear  if  the  price  of  it  is  extermination. 

We  do  not  realize  this  war,  we  Americans.  The 
people  who  realize  it  most,  as  yet,  are  the  Belgians, 
but  all  the  countries  actively  concerned  in  it  will 
realize  in  due  time  what  it  means  when  the  resources 
of  a  mechanical  civilization  are  concentrated  on  the 
destruction  of  human  life.  As  for  Belgium,  she  is 
like  a  country  crucified  for  the  saving  of  the  nations. 
Of  all  the  countries  involved  in  the  war,  she  was  the 
most  innocent,  the  best  justified,  the  most  gallant. 
Gashed  with  innumerable  wounds,  her  poor  body  is  a 
witness,  still  living,  against  the  aggressions  of  Prus- 
sia, and  against  our  modern  warfare  by  machinery. 

There  comes  in  the  papers  an  echo  of  complaint 
from  England,  alleging  that  negotiations  are  making 
here  to  stop  the  war,  and  protesting  that  the  war  can- 
not be  stopped  until  it  reaches  its  natural  finish.  As 
to  negotiations  we  know  nothing,  and  our  newspapers 
have  reported  nothing.  But  it  is  true  enough  that 
the  war  cannot  be  lanced  until  it  comes  to  a  head. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  the  Prussian  idea  of 
world-domination  may  achieve  its  fate;  one  is  to  be 
beaten  now  from  the  outside;  the  other  is  to  succeed 
now  and  be  overthrown  in  due  time  from  within. 
But,  either  way,  it  is  a  very  important  idea  that  will 
considerably  change  the  world;  and  certainly  if  it 
crashes  down  in  ruin  now,  all  the  other  ideas  of  world- 
domination  by  a  single  empire,  British,  Russian, 
American,  or  any  other,  will  go  with  it. 


October  29, 19U. 

WE  ALL  saw  the  German  army  march  to 
Paris.  We  saw  Liege  fall,  and  since 
then  we  have  watched  the  capture  of 
Antwerp.  We  have  stood  by  attentive  while  Ger- 
man submarines  have  sunk  five  British  cruisers. 
A  Little  More  ^^  have  also  seen  the  German  attacking 
Armament  for  forcc  driven  back  from  the  Marne  to  the 
Uncle  Sam  Aisne  by  the  French  and  British  forces, 
and  German  commerce  chased  from  the  seas  b}^  the 
British  navy.  We  have  been  duly  attentive  to  all 
these  spectacles,  and  unless  we  are  very,  very 
stupid,  we  must  have  acquired  some  new  and  def- 
inite realizations  about  modern  war.  Chief  among 
them  may  well  be  the  conviction  that  if  we  vv^ere  to 
choose  from  the  animal  kingdom  the  creature  that 
best  exemplifies  our  relative  condition  among  power- 
ful nations,  we  would  have  to  remove  our  good  old 
eagle  from  our  country's  seal  and  coins,  and  substi- 
tute for  him  the  soft-shell  crab. 

Considering  what  we  are  and  what  we  have  got, 
we  are,  next  to  China,  the  most  defenseless  con- 
siderable people  on  the  crust.  Only  our  modest 
navy  impairs  our  claim  to  be  the  Pie  of  the  Nations. 
To  be  sure,  we  are  too  big  to  be  conquered  by  any 
sudden  dash,  and  have  in  us,  besides,  enormous 
potentialities  of  defense  or  aggression.  To  be  sure, 
too,  we  are  so  pacific  and  so  little  ambitious  to  take 
anything  from  anybody  and  so  isolated  that  we  can 
safely  go  much  lighter  armed  and  less  protected  than 
any  other  great  country. 

But  we  seem  to  have  leaned  too  hard  on  isolation 


60  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

and  our  pacific  reputation.  This  war  that  we  have 
been  watching  has  shown  us  that  our  coast  defenses 
are  probably  out  of  date;  that,  in  proportion  to  our 
responsibilities,  our  navy  is  small  and  insufficiently 
equipped,  and  that  our  little  skeleton  army  needs 
more  meat  on  its  poor  bones.  Every  one  who  is 
interested  in  our  equipment  for  war  knows  that  it  is 
conspicuously  incomplete.  No  one  knows  it  better 
than  Europe  and  Japan.  Mexico  at  our  back  door  is 
a  big  bundle  of  disorders  and  anxieties.  Our  tem- 
porary tenure  of  Vera  Cruz  was  threatened  last  week 
by  some  uneasy  Mexican  bandit,  and  may  be  threat- 
ened again  to-morrow.  What  our  duty  to  Mexico 
may  come  to  be  we  do  not  know,  but  if  our  hopes 
should  be  disappointed  and  we  should  yet  have  to 
intervene,  our  whole  military  force  in  being  would 
not  be  enough  for  the  job. 

We  are  pacific,  but  we  undertake  some  duties 
which  imply  maintenance  of  a  moderately  competent 
apparatus  of  force.  The  Monroe  Doctrine,  that  is 
part  of  our  accepted  foreign  policy,  is  maintained 
not  so  much  by  us  as  by  the  navy  of  England.  We 
see  Germany,  her  vast  efiiciency  in  military  matters 
and  the  curious  obsessions  and  aspirations  to  which 
the  minds  that  control  her  are  subject.  We  know 
that  Germany  has  yearnings  that  conflict  with  our 
continental  policy,  and  that  what  chiefly  stands  be- 
tween them  and  us  is  England,  now  fighting  for  her 
life.  We  don't  think  England  will  be  conquered,  but 
if  she  should  be,  what  have  we  got  to  back  up  such  an 
answer  as  we  should  wish  to  make  to  a  proposal  from 
Germany  that  she  should  be  allowed  to  improve  the 
culture  of  Mexico  or  South  Brazil.^  And  there  is 
Japan,  whom  we  love  considerably,  and  who,  we 
doubt  not,  is  fond  of  us,  but  who  will  think  no  less 
kindly  of  us  for  having  due  shot  in  our  lockers,  and 
being  not  only  polite  and  considerate,  but  able-bodied. 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  61 

Are  we  not  rather  too  short  of  munitions  of  war? 
Recent  events  have  demonstrated  that  we  are  living 
on  the  same  planet  with  nations  w^hose  supreme  desire 
is  to  knock  the  heads  off  of  one  another,  and  who, 
just  now,  have  subverted  all  their  other  business  to 
the  accomplishment  of  that  purpose.  What  this 
world  will  be  like,  or  who  will  be  boss  in  it,  when 
present  activities  terminate  we  cannot  guess.  What 
aims  the  conquerors  will  have  or  what  means  to  ac- 
complish them  we  cannot  tell,  but  in  a  world  so  mad 
as  this,  plunging  to  conditions  which  cannot  be  fore- 
seen, would  it  not  be  wise  for  us  to  add  a  little  to  our 
means  of  self -protection? 

It  takes  three  years  to  build  a  battleship.  They 
say  it  takes  a  year  to  make  a  torpedo.  It  takes  six 
months,  at  least,  to  make  even  an  experimental 
soldier,  and  very  much  longer  to  make  even  an  experi- 
mental sailor.  We  do  not  want  to  be  a  military  na- 
tion, but  we  should  not  be  too  slack  about  military 
preparation.  Had  we  not  better  take,  quietly  but 
promptly,  our  little  dose  of  the  medicine  which  is 
being  passed  out  in  such  vast  quantities  to  Europe? 
Our  situation  has  changed  violently  in  three  months. 
We  ought  to  do  something  about  it,  and  do  it  at  once. 
The  time  is  at  hand  when  we  shall  have  to  take  care 
of  ourselves  and  may  be  called  upon  to  protect  some 
of  our  neighbours.  Should  we  not  qualify  ourselves 
betimes  for  these  duties?  We  are  having  a  tremen- 
dous lesson  in  human  history,  from  which,  for  us, 
one  application  is :    In  time  of  war  prepare  for  peace ! 

One  alternative  to  employing  some  more  troops 
and  pro\ading  for  annual  provision  of  a  moderate 
reserve  of  trained  soldiers,  and  building  a  supply  of 
torpedoes,  submarines,  and  junk  of  that  sort,  and 
putting  a  rather  larger  share  of  the  national  mind 
and  money  into  military  and  naval  provision,  would 
be  to  come  out  for  non-resistance.     Bishop  Greer  has 


62  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

done  ~  that.  To  the  average  unregenerate  mind  it 
does  not  look  like  a  good  course.  But  it  looks  about 
as  good  and  quite  as  hopeful  as  this  other  method 
that  is  now  proceeding  in  Europe.  To  be  between 
excessive  armament  and  non-resistance  is  to  be  be- 
tween the  devil  and  the  deep  sea,  and  after  all, 
drowning  is  a  comparatively  easy  death. 

What  does  anybody  suppose  Germany  would  do 
to  the  world  if  it  sat  down  and  let  her  have  her  way.^* 
The  chances  are  that  if  all  outside  opposition  were  re- 
moved from  her,  the  South  Germans  would  presently 
get  to  work  to  rid  themselves  of  the  insufferable 
Prussian  military  caste,  including  every  HohenzoUern 
who  could  be  caught  on  his  way  to  the  tall  timber. 

In  the  light  of  events  in  the  last  three  months,  the 
present  united  condition  of  Germany  has  come  to 
look  like  a  cruel  union  of  the  wolf  and  his  prey.  The 
great  crime  against  Germany  is  not  British  jealousy, 
not  French  revenge,  nor  Russian  malice.  It  is  Ger- 
man governmental  stupidity.  Not  since  William  11 
assisted  Bismarck  down  the  German  front  steps  with 
his  boot,  has  Germany  produced  a  man  who  had  the 
necessary  gumption  to  get  anything  from  Europe, 
except  with  a  bludgeon.  The  Kaiser  is  not  so  bad 
as  a  man,  but  he  is  of  second  or  third-rate  ability,  and 
he  has  managed  to  concentrate  in  his  sacred  person 
virtually  all  authority  over  the  destinies  of  the  German 
people.  Of  course,  at  times,  democracy  is  heart-rend- 
ing, but  it  isn't  so  bad  as  a  hereditary  Kaiserism. 

Stars  above!  This  spectacle  of  a  great  people 
befuddled  and  misled  in  this  century  by  one  second- 
rate  man,  himself  misled  by  a  lot  of  bughouse  mili- 
tants whose  trade  is  destruction !  It  makes  one  want 
to  go  out  and  eat  grass  with  the  cows,  like  Nebuchad- 
nezzar; to  get  in  with  the  animals,  of  whom 

Not  one  is  dissatisfied,  not  one  is  demented  with  the  mania 
for  owning  things 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  63 

(especially  colonies),  and  who,  though  at  times  they 
fight,  fight  merely  with  horns  and  teeth  and  claws, 
and  not  with  the  very  latest  thing  in  modern  im- 
proved machinery. 

It  all  makes  one  half  ashamed  to  buy  a  gun  or 
order  a  torpedo,  though  in  our  case,  when  we  have 
done  all  that  any  one  as  yet  will  dare  propose,  we 
will  have  acquired  no  more  than  a  fairly  competent 
national  pohce  force.  The  world  nowadays,  under 
the  great  stimulation  of  German  militarism,  is  like 
a  city  infested  with  gangs,  where  all  the  available 
money  is  spent  in  strengthening  the  gangs,  and 
nothing  for  the  police.  Only  in  so  far  as  our  war- 
money  is  spent  on  something  that  will  keep  order  in 
the  world,  will  there  be  satisfaction  in  spending  it. 
And  perhaps  it  will  be  so  spent,  for  if  the  warring 
gangs  fight  one  another  to  a  standstill  and  call  for 
the  police,  it  is  we  most  of  all  who  should  be  ready 
to  respond. 


October  S9,  19U, 

THERE  is  no  doubt  about  the  efficiency  of  tlie 
great  current  German  advertisement.  Our 
German  friends  may  give  themselves  all 
credit.  They  have  done  the  trick  as  it  has  never 
been  done  before.  Everywhere  their  notice  has 
Germang,  taken  the  head  of  the  column,  and  reading 
tJie  Doctor  matter  is  lucky  if  it  can  squeeze  in  next 
to  it.  Up  to  the  first  of  August  Germany,  as  we  saw 
it,  was  a  country  in  Europe  somewhere  between 
France  and  Russia  that  printed  in  an  old-fashioned, 
middle-aged  type,  was  good  in  music,  beer,  shipping, 
and  manufactures,  and  rather  bumptious  in  inter- 
national politics.  German  history  was  so  mixed  up 
that  only  the  more  proficient  students  got  far  into  it. 
German  baths  were  good;  so  were  German  razors. 
The  Germans  were  the  best  chemists,  and  made 
excellent  toys.  We  knew  them  as  efficient  people; 
traded  with  them  extensively ;  welcomed  them  here  as 
visitors  or  settlers;  but  about  the  German  mind  and 
what  was  going  on  in  it,  very  few  of  us  had  much 
knowledge  or  felt  any  particular  concern. 

But  since  the  fourth  of  August,  when  the  Germans 
began  to  publish  their  advertisement  across  the  line 
in  Belgium,  all  that  has  changed  To  all  thinking 
people  in  the  world,  the  compelling  and  engrossing 
thought  has  become  Germany.  What  is  she.f^  How 
came  she  so.^^  What  does  she  want,  and  can  she  get 
it?  Those  have  become  the  ruling  subjects  of  en- 
quiry, and  enquirers  have  tackled  them  on  the  run. 
The  one  thing  needful  has  seemed  to  be  to  understand 
Germany.     Everything  about  her  has  assumed  a  vast 

64 


THE  DIAEY  OF  A  NATION  65 

importance — her  place  on  the  map,  her  history  for 
ten  centuries,  her  rehgions,  her  ambitions,  her  ha- 
treds and  the  sources  of  them,  and,  of  course,  her 
mihtary  and  naval  apparatus.  We  are  all  in  the 
situation  of  the  fisherman  when  he  had  let  the  genie 
out  of  the  bottle.  We  don't  know  what  we  have  got, 
but  we  see  that  it  is  a  mighty  big  thing,  and  want  to 
know  about  it.  We  want  to  know,  especially,  what 
it  is  going  to  do  to  us. 

Already  it  has  done  a  lot.  People  used  to  laugh 
about  the  Belgian  lion,  especially  the  one  on  the 
monument  at  Waterloo.  It  may  be  that  the  careless 
morals  of  the  late  Leopold  impaired  the  dignity  of 
Belgium's  reputation.  At  any  rate,  most  people 
thought  rather  of  her  thrift  than  of  her  punch.  But 
over  her  line  drives  Germany,  and  behold  Belgium 
the  wildcat;  Belgium  who  dared  the  Minotaur; 
Belgium,  the  saviour  of  France,  the  defense  of  Eng- 
land, the  pepper  in  the  monster's  eye,  the  hero,  the 
martyr!  Never  such  a  splendour  of  glory  and  of 
sympathy — and,  alas !  punishment — as  the  great  Ger- 
man advertisement  has  brought  to  little  Belgium. 

And  France,  whose  vice  has  been  thrift,  behold  her 
a  spendthrift  of  all  things  precious!  Emotional 
France!  See  her  calm,  determined,  prompt;  well- 
ordered,  well-generalled ;  matching  strength  with 
strength,  prodigal  in  devotion,  intelligent  in  sacrifice. 

There  is  a  new  England.  Lloyd  George  tells  how 
"A  great  flood  of  luxury  and  sloth  which  had  sub- 
merged the  land  is  receding  and  a  new  Brit-ain  is  ap- 
pearing" that  "can  see  for  the  first  time  the  funda- 
mental things  that  matter  in  life  and  that  have  been 
obscured  ...  by  the  tropical  growth  of  pros- 
perity." 

Very  wonderful,  all  this.  Germany  is  the  great 
doctor  of  Europe.  Played-out  men  and  women  have 
been  going  to  her  to  be  cured  for  generations.    Now 


66  ^  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

she  is  bringing  her  cure  to  those  who  stayed  at 
home. 

Oh,  the  amazing  Germany!  she  that  practically 
single-handed  has  served  notice  on  Europe:  "Obey 
or  fight  for  freedom!"  How  came  it  to  be  in  her? 
Out  of  what  far-off  springs,  what  inward  strivings, 
what  leadings,  what  visions  and  hallucinations  has 
come  to  her  this  extraordinary  call  to  be  the  purge  of 
a  commercialized  civilization !  How  came  it  that  the 
Germans,  a  people  mostly  simple,  kindly,  and  affec- 
tionate, should  suddenly  transpire  as  "the  stern  hand 
of  fate  to  scourge  us  to  an  elevation  where  we  can  see 
the  everlasting  things  that  matter  for  a  nation?" 

We  want  to  know;  we  want  to  understand.  Every- 
thing about  Germany  has  become  vitally  interesting. 
We  examine  her  on  the  map.  We  seize  on  the  books 
that  tell  her  symptoms  and  the  history  of  her  case. 
We  cannot  read  Von  Treitschke,  but  we  read  about 
him;  and  we  read  Nietzsche  and  Bernhardi  and  Usher 
and  Cramb  and  many  more.  In  Germans,  German- 
born  or  American-born,  we  have  a  new  interest. 
Three  months  ago  we  gave  them  no  special  thought. 
Now  we  look  at  each  of  them  curiously,  trying  to  see 
in  them  some  trace  of  this  prodigious  insanity  that  has 
shaken  the  world.  When  the  French  went  mad  and 
purged  Europe  they  had  a  great  leader.  But  the  Ger- 
mans have  no  great  leader.  They  have  a  sublime  delu- 
sion and  a  magnificent  machine.  Their  leaders,  it  would 
seem,  are  Von  Treitschke  and  Nietzsche,  both  dead. 
Their  Kaiser  is  a  gallant  but  not  a  wise  man;  their 
whole  leadership,  spiritual  and  political,  seems 
touched  with  madness  and  inevitably  destined  to 
disaster.  But,  oh,  the  marvel  and  the  splendour  of  it! 
And,  oh,  the  immense  effect  of  it  on  a  machine-crazed 
world — slack  in  faith,  greedy  of  ease,  and  filled  with 
people  jealous  of  the  means  and  easements  of  their 
neighbours ! 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  67 

The  Pan-Germanists  have  managed  by  dihgence 
and  perseverance  to  stir  in  the  EngHsh  a  very  deep 
and  serious  anti-German  animosity.  They  have  not 
hesitated  to  proclaim  to  all  the  world  for  years  past 
that  Germany  was  out  for  England's  scalp,  and  at  last 
they  got  both  the  Germans  and  the  English  to  believe 
it.  The  candour  of  Pan-Germanist  writers  like 
Bernhardi  and  Treitschke  was  extraordinary.  They 
did  not  hesitate  to  publish  to  the  world  in  clear  print 
that  the  pathway  of  Germany  led  over  the  ruins  of 
England.  The  result  is  that  they  have  got  it  clinched 
in  the  English  mind  that  the  price  of  life  in  this  world 
is  to  floor  Germany  so  completely  as  to  get  Pan- 
Germanism  absolutely  and  finally  out  of  the  German 
head. 

Treitschke  is  dead,  but  Bernhardi  is  not,  and  one  of 
the  things  we  shall  want  to  know  is  how  his  services 
to  his  country  are  to  be  requited  when  the  war  is  over. 
His  book  has  done  more  than  any  other  single  thing 
to  tie  up  American  public  sentiment  to  the  Allies. 
Bernhardi  and  the  lame  cobbler  of  Zabern  are  heavy 
loads  for  the  German  apologists.  They  cannot  be 
explained  away. 


November  5,  19H, 

IT  IS  related  that  Captain  Disco  Troop,  who 
went  out  of  Gloucester  to  the  Banks,  could 
think  lilce  a  cod,  and  did  so  think  when  he  was 
after  cod,  and  so  filled  his  schooner  and  got  home 
before  his  brethren. 

Thinking  Like  We  in  this  Country  are  not  yet  out  after 
a  German  Germans,  but  we  are  closely  concerned 
with  them  and  mightily  concerned  about  them, 
and  it  seems  very  important  that  we  should  learn 
to  think  like  a  German.  For  three  months  now 
a  great  many  of  us  have  been  trying  to  do  it,  with 
such  assistance  as  we  could  get  from  available  au- 
thorities on  German  thought,  and  from  an  exceed- 
ingly stimulating  spectacle  of  German  action.  We 
have  read  the  newspapers,  including  great  numbers 
of  letters-to-the-editor,  both  from  Germans  and  anti- 
Germans,  statements  from  all  kinds  of  professors,  re- 
ports from  returning  travellers,  appeals  in  great 
number  from  professional  writers,  and  "white  pa- 
pers" and  government  manifestoes.  We  have  read 
the  English  reviews,  our  own  magazines  and  reviews, 
and  books  or  extracts  from  books  by  Bernhardi, 
Treitschke,  Usher,  Cramb,  Wile,  Billow,  and  the  rest. 
From  these  researches,  coupled  with  our  observation 
of  current  events  reflected  with  more  or  less  distor- 
tion, most  of  us  have  concluded  that  Germans  think 
steadily  the  will-to-power,  conceiving  of  the  world 
as  their  lawful  apple,  from  eating  which  they  have 
been  far  too  long  restrained  by  the  rest  of  mankind, 
and  especially  by  England.  We  think  we  think  lil^e  a 
German  when  we  think  Kaiserism,  Prussianism,  the 

68 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  69 

rule  of  might,  blood,  and  iron,  Deutschland  iiber 
Alles,  force  the  higher  law,  and  all  that.  Accord- 
ingly, it  is  getting  to  be  that  every  German  is  suspect. 
Three  months  ago  we  thought  of  Germans  not  very 
often,  being  concerned  with  baseball,  woman  suf- 
frage, our  home-grown  politics,  the  reformation  of 
society,  the  efforts  of  the  Alexander  Berkman  crowd 
to  confer  moral  importance  on  disorder,  the  efforts  to 
expel  the  bad  germs  from  business,  the  vivisection  of 
the  railroads,  the  chastening  of  the  express  compa- 
nies, and  Becky  Edelson's  disinclination  to  eat  in  jail. 
^Vhen  we  did  think  of  Germans  we  thought  of  them 
respectfully  and  kindly,  and  with  the  sentiment  that 
it  was  foolish  of  the  abstinence  party  people  to  inter- 
vene between  them  and  beer.  But  since  August  1st 
all  these  other  topics  have  been  virtually  wiped  off 
the  slate,  and  we  think,  most  of  the  time,  about  Ger- 
mans, and  think  like  a  German  in  so  far  as  we  can. 

Are  we  doing  it?  Are  we  really  thinking  like  a 
German  when  w^e  think  the  Germans  are  out  to  cap- 
ture the  earth.?  Are  we  justified  in  thinking  of  all 
the  Germans,  here  and  everywhere,  as  for  Germany 
against  the  world .'^  Must  we  think  of  Herman  Bid- 
der, for  example,  as  awaiting,  with  a  concrete  howit- 
zer base  in  his  back  garden,  the  coming  of  the  Krupps 
to  the  Western  Hemisphere?  Are  our  neighbours 
here  of  German  derivation  potential  spies  of  the 
Kaiser  and  potential  allies  of  the  Kaiserland  against 
this  Republic  that  has  sheltered  them?  Germany 
in  this  war  is,  apparently,  a  very  compact,  united 
nation.  In  action  all  the  Germans  are  working  in 
unison,  fighting,  paying,  dying,  shoulder  to  shoulder; 
are  we  to  infer  that  in  every  German  mind  exists  this 
strenuous  purpose,  avowed  by  one  great  school  of 
German  thought  and  finding  its  due  expression  in  a 
war  defended  or  extenuated  by  all  the  rest— the  pur- 
pose to  impose  on  earth  the  Hohenzollern  will  as  its 


70  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  / 

dominant  governmental  force;  to  seize  for  Germany 
whatever  Germans  covet;  to  kill  and  destroy  what- 
ever stands  in  the  way  of  German  ambition,  humbling 
all  other  powers  that  Germany  may  increase? 

If  to  think  these  thoughts  is  to  think  like  a  German, 
then  we  Americans  ought  all  to  realize  it.  "Given 
that  mood  of  mind,"  writes  a  friend  to  this  paper, 
''victory  for  the  Teuton  would  be  more  terrible  than 
defeat,  as  the  world  would  be  delivered  to  a  succes- 
sion of  barren  struggles,  ending  in  such  suspicion  and 
despair  as  creation  has  never  witnessed."  How  is  it? 
How  many  German  minds  have  yielded  to  this  ter- 
rible obsession?  How  many  of  the  German  fighting 
men  are  consciously  expressing  it?  How  many  feel 
themselves  committed  to  world-power  or  downfall? 

It  is  the  habit  of  peoples,  when  involved  in  a  serious 
war,  to  fight  first  and  think  afterwards.  The  trouble 
about  thinking  like  the  German  masses  is  that  there 
is  no  evidence  that  the  Germ. an  masses  have  yet 
begun  to  think.  They  are  very  busy  fighting  and 
taking  care  of  wounded  men,  and  a  great  many  al- 
ready are  dead.  Vorioaerts,  the  Social-Democrat 
German  paper,  showed  signs  of  thinking,  and  (we 
hear)  was  suppressed.  The  only  German  thought 
that  shows  just  now  is  this  Pan-German,  world- 
power,  Machtpolitik  thought  that  has  brought  on  and 
is  conducting  the  war.  The  mass  of  Germans  be- 
haves as  though  it  was  completely  penetrated  and 
possessed  with  this  thought.  If  we  are  to  think  like 
a  German  it  is  the  only  important  and  effective 
thought  available  for  us  at  present. 

And  yet,  if  we  attribute  it  to  all  Germans,  it  may 
be  we  shall  do  them  an  injustice.  It  may  be  that 
they  are  already  beginning  to  think  thoughts  of  their 
own  not  identical  with  this  governing  thought  of  the 
Prussian  force-worshippers,  and  that  a  little  further 
along  in  the  war,  when  the  Russians,  say,  finally  cross 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  71 

the  German  border,  we  shall  begin  to  get  a  new  line 
of  German  thought  which  is  not  derived  from  Treit- 
schke  and  Bernhardi,  and,  perhaps,  is  not  strictly 
Hohenzollern. 

Let  us  wait  a  bit  and  see.  The  new  thought,  if  it 
comes,  may  be  very,  very  interesting  and  fruitful; 
fruitful  possibly  of  the  sort  of  fruit  that  hangs  from 
trees  by  hempen  stems  and  is  harvested  in  coffins. 

Let  us  wait.  And  especially  let  our  brother  Amer- 
icans of  German  descent  be  advised  to  wait  a  little, 
too,  and  not  be  absolutely  confident  that  they  are 
thinking  like  Germans  until  the  whole  of  German 
thought  has  had  a  chance  to  disclose  itself. 

The  present  leaders  and  directors  of  German 
thought  and  action  are  the  most  important  foes  of 
democracy  in  the  world.  If  our  fellow  republicans 
here  of  German  descent  give  the  whole  of  their 
adherence  to  their  present  leaders,  the  later  German 
sober  second  thought  may  terribly  embarrass  them. 
What  will  they  say — Ridder,  IMiinsterberg,  the 
Roosevelt  Exchange  Professors  and  all  the  Kaiserbund 
— if  German  thought  suddenly  changes  on  them.^^ 
Who  will  they  speak  for  then?  Not  for  the  United 
States,  certainly,  for  they  don't  now;  and  not  for 
Germany  if  Germany  sheds  the  Kaiser. 

We  do  not  envy  the  gentlemen  in  this  country  who 
have  got  in  with  the  Kaiser.  If  his  tires  go  fiat  they 
will  have  a  very  long  walk  home. 

Assistant  Secretary  Roosevelt  says  we  have  not 
enough  men  in  the  navy  by  eighteen  thousand 
to  man  the  ships  we  have  in  stock.  Mr.  Roosevelt 
would  be  obliged  if  Congress  would  authorize  the 
Navy  Department  to  recruit  that  number  of  men 
and  add  them  to  the  force  that  the  law  at  present 
allows. 

We  believe  Mr.  Joseph  H.  Choate,  lately  ambassa- 


72  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

dor,  would  back  Mr.  Roosevelt  in  this  desire.  In 
the  introduction  that  he  has  contributed  to  Cramb's 
"Germany  and  England"  Mr.  Choate  says: 

What  is  going  on  now  is  a  contest  for  the  empire  of  the  world, 
and  we  have  no  use  for  empire.  But  if  we  really  wish  for  peace 
against  all  hazards,  we  must  ever  strengthen  our  navy  and  train 
every  youth  in  the  Republic,  as  he  approaches  manhood,  to  such 
an  extent  as  shall  qualify  him  to  be  converted  into  an  efficient 
soldier  at  the  shortest  notice. 

Mr.  Choate  does  not  wish  to  bring  on  war,  but  to 
keep  out  of  it.  With  armament  it  is  as  it  is  with 
drink  and  many  other  things.  Too  much  is  worse 
than  none;  enough  is  better  than  none.  Germany's 
awful  example  of  too  much  armament  will  be  used  by 
the  inconsiderate  to  scare  us  out  of  having  enough. 
We  must  have  an  adequate  minimum  apparatus  of 
protection. 


November  12,  19H. 

A  MAN  who  returned  a  book  by  Nietzsche  to 
the  Public  Library  remarked  as  he  passed  it 
in:  "This  does  not  get  under  my  skin." 
The  remark  applies  to  the  efforts  of  the  German 
apologists  in  this  country.  Some  of  these  gentlemen 
Germany  and  have  done  better  than  others,  but  none 
Colonies  of  them  has  got  under  the  American 
skin.  Their  best  has  been  to  bring  some  ideas  and 
arguments  to  American  attention  that  later  on  may 
help  to  inspire  sentiments  that  may  be  useful  to 
Germany.  A  good  many  of  us,  for  instance,  think 
with  sympathy  of  Germany's  yearning  for  good 
colonial  possessions,  where  Germans  may  develop 
as  Germans  and  the  German  language  will  not  have 
to  yield  to  English.  That  seems  a  natural  aspiration 
for  a  crowded  and  energetic  country,  but  while,  in  a 
way,  we  sympathize  with  it,  we  are  not  ready  yet  to 
help  break  up  and  make  over  the  various  continents 
in  order  to  further  it.  No  doubt  we  understand  and 
like  the  English  civilization  better  than  the  German 
because  it  is  based  in  democracy  and  is  more  like 
our  own,  but  we  are  not  finally  committed  to  the 
idea  that  the  English  are  the  Chosen  People  and 
ought  for  the  world's  good  to  inherit  the  earth.  We 
would  be  glad  to  have  the  Germans  have  greater 
territorial  possessions  if  it  could  be  accomplished 
without  intolerable  disturbance  and  if  the  Germans 
showed  any  considerable  qualifications  for  successful 
colonization.  But  nobodv  seems  able  to  endure 
German  rule  but  Germans.  They  can  stand  the 
German  method  when  they  have  to.     Other  peoples 

73 


74  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

hate  it,  and  even  Germans,  once  they  have  escaped 
it,  stay  away. 

It  is  related  that  when  Dean  Richmond  was  presi- 
dent of  the  New  York  Central  Railroad  some  ojie 
said  to  him:  "I  see  all  your  conductors  have  gold 
watches  and  diamond  pins.  Those  men  must  be 
knocking  down  fares.  I  should  thinlv  you'd  dis- 
charge them."  But  Mr.  Richmond  said:  "These 
present  conductors  have  already  provided  themselves 
with  diamond  pins  and  gold  watches.  Do  you  really 
think  we  would  do  well  to  substitute  for  them  a  lot 
of  new  men  with  diamonds  and  watches  still  to  get.^^" 

So,  in  spite  of  our  sympathy  with  Germ.an  desires, 
the  profit  to  the  world  of  having  Germany  supersede 
England  as  a  colonial  power  seems  very  dubious. 
England  has  been  greedy  and  is  now  pretty  well 
glutted;  she  has  been  harsh  and  has  grown  almost 
gentle;  her  manners  have  been  bad,  but  they  have 
improved.  In  so  far  as  she  rules  colonies  now,  she 
does  it  chiefly  by  persuasion.  The  thought  of  having 
Germany,  the  new  broom,  sweep  through  the  con- 
tinents, excites  far  more  dismay  than  enthusiasm. 

No  doubt  there  should  be  organized  a  great  holding 
company  to  take  title  to  the  outlying  portions  of  the 
earth,  and  give  deserving  peoples  privileges  of  resi- 
dence and  exploitation  in  spare  lands  that  would  suit 
them.  If  there  were  such  a  holding  comipany  it  m^ay 
be  that  Germany  would  get  good  openings,  for  there 
are  vast  regions  which  her  widely  advertised  KuUur 
might  very  much  improve.  Instead  of  which  w^e  see 
it  now  devoted  to  an  appalling  destruction;  sacrificing 
by  the  hundred  thousand  the  lives  of  its  own  young 
men — very  good  young  men,  most  of  them — killing 
also  by  the  hundred  thousand  the  valuable  and  rather 
scarce  young  men  of  France  and  Belgium  and  Eng- 
land, and  wasting  in  like  manner  the  youth  of  il- 
limitable Russia,  who  has  room  for  them  all^  and 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  75 

involving  Austria  and,  one  after  another,  the  other 
outlying  nations,  in  corresponding  sacrifice  and  de- 
struction. 

It  is  bad,  bad,  bad;  and  all  grows  out  of  the  vice  of 
nationality,  which  is  so  nearly  a  virtue  and  yet  raises 
such  particular  hob.  And  here  in  these  States  all  we 
seem  able  to  do  about  it  is  to  say  how  dreadful  it  is, 
and  moan,  and  give  something  to  a  fund,  and  go 
home  to  dinner.  How  are  we  going  to  get  02ir  medi- 
cine? How  shall  this  enormous  discipline  the  world 
is  undergoing  be  brought  home  to  us  to  our  spiritual 
profit? 

Of  course  we  have  been  pinched  in  the  general 
squeeze.  A  great  deal  of  our  business  has  had  and  is 
having  a  hard  scramble  to  get  along.  The  collapse 
of  the  cotton  market  is  only  one  of  many  troubles 
growing  out  of  the  war  which  put  people  out  of  their 
habits  of  living,  and  involve  loss  of  employment  and 
distress.  The  war  does  reach  us  and  may  yet  pinch 
us  hard  enough  to  compel  great  cooperative  and  per- 
haps governmental  measures  for  relief  at  home  as  well 
as  abroad.  But  it  might,  and  may,  go  further  than 
that  as  a  disciplinary  experience  and  yet  not  exceed 
our  national  needs.  The  seeds  of  it  seem  to  be  very 
deep.  It  is  the  culmination  of  a  world-wide  unrest, 
due  to  something  more  than  armament  and  the 
jealousies  of  nations,  and  felt  in  this  country  and 
China  as  distinctly  as  in  the  countries  that  are  fight- 
ing. We  of  the  United  States  have  by  no  means 
escaped  this  general  infection.  We  have  had  the 
suffrage  agitation,  the  Progressive  movement,  such 
queer  signs  of  uneasiness  as  last  year's  fashions  and 
the  tango,  and  an  anti-capitalist  revolution  with 
indictments  and  a  fight  against  the  railroads  and  the 
trusts.  England  has  like  disquietudes  or  worse. 
France  had  its  excitements,  like  the  Caillaux  case 
and   a  political  deadlock.     Conditions  peculiar  to 


76  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

Europe  have  made  the  disturbance  over  there  cul- 
minate' in  this  huge  and  deadly  conflict  of  nations, 
out  of  which  the  survivors  may  hope  to  emerge  cured 
of  their  insanities.  But  how  are  we  to  be  cured  of 
ours?  Will  the  treatment  we  have  had,  joined  to 
what  we  are  getting  as  we  sit  here  on  the  edge  of  the 
hurricane,  be  enough?  Is  there  discipline  enough 
coming,  joined  to  what  we  have  had,  to  knock  the 
nonsense  out  of  us,  too,  and  jolt  us  back  into  just 
relations  with  the  realities  of  life? 

That  is  the  nature  of  the  question  which  many 
minds  must  be  cogitating  as  we  read  of  the  Germans 
crossing  and  recrossing  the  Yser  on  the  bodies  of  their 
fellows.  Tolstoi,  in  his  curious  forecast  of  world 
troubles  at  this  time,  saw  them  all  proceed  out  of  the 
"eternal  courtesan.  Commercialism."  But  that 
means  the  whole  world-structure  of  money-making 
business,  with  its  vast  machinery  of  machines, 
factories,  shops,  banks;  the  whole  apparatus  of  in- 
dustrialism and  finance.  Against  that  there  has  been 
proceeding  in  this  country  a  fight  for  fifteen  years 
which  has  come  to  a  point  where  the  whole  money- 
caste  (so  to  speak)  has  been  dislodged  from  political 
control,  leaving  the  administration  of  government 
for  the  most  part  in  the  hands  of  men  who  can  prove 
an  alibi  when  accused  of  being  seen  in  the  company 
of  a  dollar.  As  a  result,  a  very  large  proportion  of 
the  experience,  ability,  and  leadership  of  the  country 
has  become  unavailable  for  the  public  service,  and 
the  difficulty  and  expense  of  commanding  a  suflBcient 
advertisement  to  capture  the  public  fancy  has  made 
it  hard  to  bring  forward  the  best  men  from  the  resi- 
due. Nevertheless,  we  get  some  of  them — perhaps 
enough;  and  under  Mr.  Wilson's  leadership  we  are 
getting  along  pretty  well.  But  the  great  war  has 
caught  us  in  the  middle  of  a  big  experiment,  and  if, 
as  seems  possible,  we  are  called  upon  to  be  an  ex- 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  77 

ample  to  the  world  and  a  life-preserver  to  the  perish- 
ing, we  shall  have  to  make  a  monumental  scramble 
to  discharge  the  conspicuous  duties  thrust  upon  us 
with  the  requisite  energy  and  skill.  The  world  seems 
to  be  getting  into  a  condition  which  somebody  will 
have  to  rise  to,  and  nobody  else  appears  of  the  requi- 
site size  to  do  it  but  ourselves.  But  size  will  not  be 
enough  unless  we  have  also  quality,  and  to  manifest 
that  will  call  for  a  greater  cooperation  of  the  intel- 
ligence and  vigour  of  the  country  than  our  political 
affairs  have  seen  for  a  good  while  past.  There  is 
likely  to  be  more  for  this  country  to  do  than  to  trade 
on  the  misfortunes  of  Europe,  or  even  spend  what  it 
can  spare  in  retail  succouring.  A  huge  effort  to  help 
may  be  required  of  us  which  will  lift  us  out  of  the 
trough  of  selfishness  as  war  is  lifting  the  nations  of 
Europe,  and  will  compel  such  a  use  of  all  our  re- 
sources and  such  a  cooperation  of  all  our  abilities 
as  shall  really  teach  us  what  we  are  and  can  do  if  we 
have  to  try. 

Our  immediate  opportunity  is  to  succour  the  dis- 
tressed Belgians.  No  one  is  in  a  position  to  do  that 
but  ourselves.  ^Vhat  we  have  done  so  far  is  but  a 
drop  in  the  bucket.  The  people  at  large  have  not  yet 
got  into  this  work,  and  until  they  do  it  will  not  be 
done  in  the  measure  that  the  exigency  calls  for. 


November  19, 19H-, 

PROFESSOR  KUNO  FRANCKE  of  Harvard 
is  one  of  the  more  successful  German  apolo- 
gists because  he  is  intelHgent  and  not  over- 
bearing. He  comes,  not  from  Prussia,  like  Dr.  Mun- 
sterburg,  but  from  Schles wig-Hols tein,  and  has 
The  German  apparently  inherited  amenities  with  his 
Ideal  Danish  derivation.     In  a  recent  speech  in 

Boston  he  explains  that  while  there  is  still  work  for 
freedom  to  do  in  Germany,  "it  cannot  be  said  that 
freedom  during  the  last  generation  has  been  the  great 
national  need  of  Germany,  or  that  it  is  any  longer 
the  ideal  that  inspires  Germany's  best  men."  It 
has  not,  he  says,  been  replaced  by  militarism,  nor  is 
world-dominion  the  ideal  of  responsible  Germans. 
Their  ideal  is  of  national  self -improvement  and  na- 
tional efficiency.  "To  the  German  the  State  is  a 
spiritual,  collective  personality  leading  a  life  of  its 
own  beyond  the  lives  of  individuals,  and  its  aim  is 
not  the  protection  of  the  happiness  of  individuals,  but 
the  making  of  a  nobler  type  of  man  and  the  achieve- 
ment of  high  excellence  in  all  the  departments  of 
life."  This  is  the  Kaiser's  ideal,  too,  and  his  glorifi- 
cation of  his  office  "makes  him  the  incarnation  of  the 
active  and  disciplined  Germany." 

We  are  all  trying  hard  just  now  to  understand  the 
Germans,  and  these  words  of  Dr.  Francke  are  adapted 
to  help  us.  Just  now  this  German  ideal  has  to  be 
taken  in  association  with  about  ^yq  million  highly 
competent  soldiers,  all  practising  to  spread  it,  and 
a  large  supply  of  exceptionally  efficient  Krupp  guns 
exploding  to  the  same  end.    The  association  is  a  little 

78 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  79 

trying  to  the  ideal.  Is  that  a  mere  misfortune,  or  do 
the  army  and  the  ideal  belong  together?  Is  this 
German  ideal  necessarily  tied  up  to  militarism  be- 
cause it  is  necessarily  hostile  to  the  ideal  of  individual 
freedom  that  belongs  to  such  nations  as  France,  Eng- 
land, Belgium,  and  the  United  States? 

Nobody  outside  of  Germany  would  object,  it 
would  seem,  to  Dr.  Francke's  German  ideal  unless 
there  is  something  in  it  that  threatens  the  security 
of  other  nations. 

Is  there  something? 

Our  ideal  of  individual  freedom  is  vague,  vulnerable, 
impracticable  often,  outrageous  sometimes.  A  lot  of 
bad  government  usually  gets  in  with  it. 

This  German  ideal  is  smooth,  efficient,  steady, 
powerful — until  it  blows  up. 

Must  it  blow  up?  Does  it  carry  in  it  the  certain 
germs  of  destruction? 

There  is  so  much  about  it  that  is  strange,  almost 
incredible,  to  us.  It  is  so  old-time  Jewish  in  some 
things.  The  Kaiser  seems  to  be  to  the  Germans 
what  Moses  was  to  the  Israelites — a  go-between 
between  them  and  God;  a  leader,  a  master.  All 
peoples,  it  seems,  must  start  that  way,  gathering 
around  a  master  whose  will  protects  and  directs 
them,  but  it  is  hard  to  think  of  the  Germans  as  be- 
ginners. But  as  a  great  modern  power  they  are 
beginners,  and  this  system  that  they  have  endured 
has  brought  them  along,  in  material  things  at  least, 
very  wonderfully. 

But  has  it  been  doing  what  Dr.  Francke  says  its 
ideal  calls  for?  Has  it  been  making  a  nobler  type  of 
man?  It  has  certainiy  achieved  high  excellence  in 
many  of  the  departments  of  life.  But  in  all?  No. 
Not  in  all.  It  is  good  in  Krupps  and  chemistry,  in 
manufactures,  in  trade,  in  civic  government,  in  the 
regulation  of  life  for  the  promotion  of  average  com- 


80  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

fort.  It  is  bad  in  art.  It  is  not  notable  in  the  higher 
forms  of  literature.  And  as  to  the  great  point  of 
making  nobler  types  of  men — has  it  done  it?  The 
Germans  are  notably  efficient,  but  are  they  creative, 
are  they  inventive,  and  are  they  nobler  than  other 
men?  They  have  told  us  that  democratic  France 
was  decadent;  that  democratic  England  was  a  pre- 
tense and  an  empty  shell ;  that  Russia  was  barbarous. 
They  said  nothing  about  Belgium.  There  ought  to  be 
a  Nobel  prize  for  nobility.  If  there  were,  would  it 
go  to  Germany?  One  sees  in  Germany  immense  eflS- 
ciency,  courage,  aggressiveness,  capacity  to  suflPer,  but 
where,  so  far,  has  she  been  noble? 

In  Belgium?    At  Lou  vain?    At  Rheims? 

Her  specialty  is  fighting,  but  man  for  man  she 
can't  handle  the  Belgians  or  the  new  French,  and  her 
superiority  to  the  Russians  is  dubious,  while  as  for 
the  English,  they  are  but  a  handful  so  far  in  this 
war,  but  it  has  been  a  handful  for  Germany. 

No;  get  them  out  of  their  shops  and  laboratories 
and  the  current  Germans  don't  seem  to  be  of  an 
egregious  nobility.  The  Belgians  can  give  them  odds 
in  it,  and  they  seem  to  have  nothing  on  the  lately 
decadent  French.  They  must  be  learning  a  wonder- 
ful lot  about  the  qualities  of  other  people,  and  per- 
haps they  are  revising  their  self-esteem. 

Arthur  Withington,  of  Newburyport,  who  writes 
a  letter  to  the  Springfield  Republican,  says: 

Efficiency  and  the  acceptance  of  arbitrary  authority  by  the 
sacrifice  of  liberty  is  admitted  as  a  Socialistic  end.  In  other 
words.  Socialism  is  in  being  in  Germany  to-day.  The  Kaiser  is 
fighting  its  fight  and  German  culture  is  Socialism. 

What  is  there  in  Dr.  Francke's  exposition  of  the 
German  ideal  that  conflicts  with  this  opinion? 
Mr.  Withington  says  further: 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  81 

When  this  war  is  over,  Socialism,  Prohibition,  the  Kaiser's 
mailed  fist,  Lord  Kitchener's  military  rule,  and  all  other  mani- 
festations of  the  gospel  of  force  and  the  anti-Christian  movement 
will  have  less  blind  followers  than  during  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century.  There  will  be  a  return  to  the  simple  faith  of  the  fathers 
that  government  is  a  necessary  evil. 

Shouldn't  wonder;  shouldn't  wonder  at  all.  And 
not  the  least  of  the  wonders  to  come  will  be  the 
adjustment  of  the  German  ideal  to  the  change  in 
faith. 


December  10  y  19  H, 

UNDOUBTEDLY    this    is    the    most    stupid, 
senseless,   and   unnecessary   war    of    modern 
times." 
So  the  Crown  Prince  of  Germany  at  the  head- 
quarters of  his  army  in  France,  as  reported  by  Karl 
"The  Most        von    Wiegand,    correspondent    of    the 

Senseless  War"   United  PresS. 

These  are  admirable  words,  which  pierce  the  haze 
of  war  as  a  sun  ray  cuts  through  fog.  No  matter 
that  the  young  Highness  goes  on  to  say  the  war  was 
forced  on  Germany.  He  could  not  well  say  less. 
But  in  calling  it  stupid,  senseless,  and  unnecessary 
he  blurted  out  the  truth. 

But  this  welcome  exploit  is  the  only  considerable 
German  success  that,  at  this  writing,  looms  up.  Our 
news  may  not  all  be  true  or  up  to  the  date,  but  taking 
it  day  in  and  day  out,  and  comparing  one  source  with 
another,  we  have  confidence  in  it.  We  think  we 
know  where  the  battle  line  runs  in  the  north  of 
France,  and  about  where  it  runs  on  the  Russian  side 
of  Germany.  On  the  west  we  are  told  the  Allies  are 
rather  more  than  holding  their  own,  and  on  the  east, 
though  advices  conflict,  the  Russians  seem  to  have, 
lately,  very  much  the  best  of  the  fighting,  so  that  we 
put  our  ears  to  the  ground  and  listen  to  hear  the 
German  back  door  rattle. 

What  with  mines  and  submarines  and  mysterious 
ailments  a  British  warship  has  come  to  be  no  place 
for  persons  of  a  nervous  temperament.  But  for 
that  matter  we  hear  of  very  few  places  in  this  war 
where  persons  of  nervous  temperaments  could  be 

82 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  83 

happy.  Even  the  trenches  ashore,  where  most  of 
the  fighting  is  done  now,  are  nothing  to  brag  of  as 
tranquil  homes. 

Nobody  is  beaten  yet,  except,  possibly,  Austria, 
and  Austria  is  so  imperfectly  articulated  and  is 
aggregated  out  of  so  many  components  that  probably 
it  is  hard  for  her  to  tell  at  any  given  time  what  has 
happened  to  her.  Besides  that,  her  situation  is  com- 
plicated by  her  being  mixed  up  with  Germany.  She 
may  die  in  peace,  but  the  Germans  won't  let  her  die 
in  war  until  they  get  ready.  They  are  not  ready  yet 
by  a  great  deal.  They  have  not  yet,  at  this  writing, 
got  do^vn  the  coast  to  Calais,  but  they  are  installed  in 
Belgium  with  an  elaborateness  that  implies  a  disposi- 
tion to  make  themselves  a  home  there.  Against  that 
disposition  the  sentiment  of  almost  all  the  rest  of  the 
world,  and  especially  of  the  French,  the  English,  and 
the  Belgians,  is  very  decided,  and  to  that  sentiment — 
unless  we  are  very  much  misled  about  what's  going 
on — they  presently  will  have  to  yield.  What  with 
the  urgency  of  the  Western  Allies  and  the  clamours 
of  the  delegation  from  the  Czar,  some  forecasters 
think  the  Germans  will  all  be  home  in  Fatherland  for 
Christmas,  but  that  seems  almost  too  abrupt  a  leave- 
taking  for  a  people  so  attentive  to  formal  manners. 

Forecasting  the  end  of  the  war  is  getting  to  be  a 
favourite  form  of  relaxation.  Some  of  the  banker 
gentlemen,  as  Mr.  Schiff,  are  in  favour  of  closing  it 
with  the  least  possible  delay,  fearing,  possibly,  that  if 
it  goes  on  much  longer  there  won't  be  anything  left 
even  for  Israel.  But  the  Germans  still  seem  strong 
for  going  on,  at  least  until  they  have  destroyed  the 
English,  and  the  English  are  for  going  on  until  the 
Germans  lose  all  their  appetite  for  loot  and  the  sun, 
and  withdraw  their  claim  that  they  are  the  destined 
renovators  of  the  universe.  A  British  army  officer 
says  in  the  papers  that  the  war  will  be  over  in  six 


84  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

months;  an  American  army  officer,  well  qualified  to 
guess,  says  three  months;  an  American  naval  officer 
says  January  will  see  the  end  of  it,  and  that  it  will 
settle  nothing.  But  nobody  knows,  and  the  opinion 
of  a  seventh  son  looks  just  as  good  as  that  of  a  mili- 
tary expert. 

Prospective  American  politics  is  in  a  condition  of 
almost  as  much  uncertainty  as  the  affairs  of  Europe 
and  Mexico.  That  Mr.  Wilson  will  continue  to  be 
President  for  a  second  term  is  very  likely,  but  what 
voters  will  elect  him  is  more  uncertain.  As  we 
write,  an  autopsy  on  the  Bull-Moose  party  is  about  to 
be  held  in  Chicago,  and  while  a  certificate  of  natural 
death  is  expected,  the  fact  may  not  be  admitted.  In 
the  year  just  ahead  a  great  deal  is  going  to  happen, 
and  the  present  record  of  the  present  administration 
may  be  virtually  replaced  by  a  new  one  made  in  very 
critical  affairs.  Mr.  Wilson  is  in  the  fortunate  posi- 
tion of  having  his  legislative  decks  pretty  well  cleared 
for  action.  That  is  a  vast  advantage,  due  to  his 
astonishing  pertinacity  in  getting  work  done  that  the 
Democratic  party  had  promised  to  tackle. 


December  17,  19H, 

TO  OUR  mind,  Representative  Augustus  Gard- 
ner does  a  useful  work  when  he  calls  attention 
to  the  fact  that  we  are  slack,  even  for  us,  in 
military  provision. 

When  Mr.  Gardner  does  something  that  he  con- 
Military  siders  important,  he  does  it  with  emphasis. 
Provision  and  even  noisily.  One  recalls  his  defian- 
ces, accompanied  with  execrations  and  the  clash 
of  cymbals,  of  the  Hon.  Theo.  Roosevelt  in  a  late 
political  campaign  in  Massachusetts.  What  the 
defiances  were  about  has  passed  from  memory,  but 
traces  of  the  concomitant  noise  still  remain  in  one's 
mind.  In  asking  for  more  torpedoes,  soldiers,  salt- 
petre, tinned  beef,  sailor-men,  gunners,  aeroplanes, 
diving-ships,  trained  censors  and  other  attributions 
of  the  apparatus  of  contemporary  warfare,  Mr. 
Gardner  has  done  it,  as  usual,  with  the  utmost  din 
he  could  produce.  We  do  not  criticize  him  for  that, 
for  no  doubt  to  stir  people  up  to  improve  their  de- 
fenses is  a  noisy  job  and  has  to  be  noisily  done.  But 
while  the  noise  seems  to  be  doing  its  work,  it  has 
scared  a  lot  of  very  good  people  who,  as  it  looks  to  us, 
have  really  no  reason  to  be  alarmed  by  anything  that 
is  contemplated.  The  respected  Evening  Post  is 
the  chief  vehicle  by  which  they  convey  remonstrances 
to  the  ears  of  a  select  public.  Bishop  Greer  has 
spoken  in  the  Post,  in  deprecation  of  all  war  prepara- 
tion, and  consistently,  because  Bishop  Greer  has  come 
out  flat  for  non-resistance.  Mr.  Carnegie  has  so 
spoken,  and  the  Rev.  John  Haynes  Holmes,  and  lat- 
est at  this  writing  Miss  Lillian  Wald,  the  eminent 

85 


86  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

settlement  worker.  Miss  Wald  says  the  social  work- 
ers are  against  armament.  She  says  that  if  we  fortify 
the  Canadian  line,  we  shall  presently  be  fighting 
Canada.  She  thinks  the  psychology  of  those  who 
would  insure  peace  by  being  ready  to  fight  is  all 
wrong,  and  she  applauds  the  reported  attitude  of 
President  Wilson  in  opposing  the  Congressional  in- 
vestigation of  our  means  of  defense  which  Mr.  Gardner 
desires. 

Meanwhile,  the  remonstrance  already  seems  dis- 
proportionate to  the  military  improvements  in- 
tended. We  have  not  heard  yet  of  any  purpose  to 
fortify  the  Canada  line  against  the  Germans,  and 
hope  is  still  high  that  the  Germans  will  not  conquer 
Canada.  The  most  that  seems  to  be  proposed  by  the 
anxious  is  that  we  shall  try  to  get  better  value  for  the 
considerable  expenditure  which  we  already  make  on 
our  army  and  navy;  that  we  shall  keep  up  our  navy, 
and  perhaps  increase  it  a  little;  that  we  shall  provide 
due  store  of  such  things  as  cannot  be  improvised  in  an 
emergency,  and  that  we  shall  increase  the  army  a  very 
little  and  try  to  contrive  an  available  force  of  in- 
structed men  about  as  large  as  that  maintained  by 
Switzerland. 


December  2^,  1914. 

THERE  are  those  whose  interest  in  the  war 
vents  itself  entirely  in  disapprobation,  and 
contrivance  of  means  to  stop  it,  and  there  are 
others  whose  dismay  is  all  but  overcome  by  their 
interest  in  what  it  will  do  to  the  world.  The  first 
The  War  and  Want  peace,  no  matter  what.  The 
Religious  Unity  latter.  Seeing  that  destruction  has  gone 
so  far,  are  for  having  a  sufficiently  thorough  job 
done  to  put  to  rights  the  chief  things  that  are  amiss 
with  Europe,  and  incidentally  with  the  rest  of  the 
world.  They  don't  want  so  much  war  wasted.  They 
want  the  world  to  be  definitely  better  for  the  immense 
suffering  now  going  on  and  the  immense  sacrifices 
now  being  made.  These  people  do  not  think  over- 
much who  is  right  or  who  is  wrong.  They  see  now 
in  the  war  an  immense  con\ailsion  breaking  down  old 
divisions,  political  and  social,  destroying  edifices 
of  all  sorts,  and  filling  the  world  with  material  for 
new  construction.  They  bear  the  smash  with  pa- 
tience, because  of  the  intense  anticipation  with  which 
the^^  look  ahead.  Some  of  them  are  ready  to  ride  on 
this  great  wave  the  whole  distance  to  the  millennium. 
No  doubt  they  won't.  The  millennium  will  prob- 
ably keep  up  its  reputation  of  being  a  receding  festi- 
val, but  a  lot  is  happening,  and  a  lot  will  come  of  it, 
and  the  people  who  dream  dreams  and  see  visions 
about  it  are  timely,  at  leasi,  in  their  hospitality  to 
such  exercises.  Ferrero  says  the  war  may  recreate 
the  mind  of  the  world.  That  would  mean  that  all 
sorts  of  people  would  get  new  viev/s  of  all  sorts  of 
subjects,  and  a  new  attitude  to  questions  they  had 

87 


88  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

supposed  were  impossible  of  settlement  or  disposed 
of.  There  seems  to  be  more  to  this  war  than  politics; 
more  than  geography  or  commerce;  more  than  to  see 
whether  England  or  Germany  is  to  lead  the  world; 
more  than  the  progress  of  Russia  to  civilization  and 
Constantinople;  more  than  the  amplification  of  the 
influence  or  prosperity  of  the  United  States.  It  may 
be  the  point  of  a  new  departure  in  the  relations  of 
men;  a  huge  world-change  out  of  which  are  to  pro- 
ceed new  conceptions  of  duty,  of  profit,  of  individual 
success.  And  there  may  easily  come  out  of  it  an 
immense  revival  of  interest  in  religion. 

This  last  possibility  is  in  many  people's  minds. 
This  war  has  stunned  a  good  many  people.  They 
think  it  is  not  a  Christian  exercise,  and  they  ask 
themselves  what  Christianity  has  been  about — what 
good  it  is — if  such  a  war  can  tear  up  the  most  Chris- 
tianized continent  on  the  globe.  Whole  pages  of 
letters  appear  in  some  of  the  newspapers — as  the 
Evening  Sun — wherein  the  writers  discuss  whether 
faith  is  dead.  A  large  majority  of  them  say  No,  but 
the  flood  of  letters  shows  the  rising  interest  in  the 
discussion. 

Now,  this  war  is  not  in  any  large  detaO  of  it  a 
religious  dispute.  Perhaps  it  is  a  war  for  commercial 
supremacy,  but  it  is  certainly  not  a  war  for  religious 
supremacy.  Catholics,  Protestants,  Russian-church- 
men, Buddhists,  Mohammedans,  pagans,  and  miscel- 
laneous sinners  are  all  mixed  up  in  it.  A  holy  war 
has  been  proclaimed  to  the  Mohammedans,  but  the 
proclamation  doesn't  seem  to  take.  It  isn't  a  fight 
about  religion,  and  it  declines  to  become  one.  That 
makes  more  interesting  the  suggestion  that  some 
minds  entertain,  that  out  of  the  ruins  of  what  has 
been  established  may  spring  up  for  the  Christian 
peoples  some  workable  contrivance  of  religious  unity. 

Of  course  church  unity  has  long  been  talked  about. 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  89 

and,  of  course,  to  that  Tipperary  the  way  looks  very 
long;  but  the  time  for  rebuilding  is  after  an  earth- 
quake, and  if  this  present  European  earthquake  goes  on 
long  enough,  the  reconstruction  that  will  follow  is  likely 
to  be  proportionate  to  the  destruction  that  will  have 
been  done.  To  peoples  and  churches  desperately 
shaken  and  looking  for  a  fellowship  that  shall  help 
to  insure  them  against  a  recurrence  of  like  disasters, 
readjustments  and  conciliations  are  possible  that 
could  not  be  considered  by  prosperous,  going  con- 
cerns. If  this  is  "the  great  day  of  the  Lord,"  as  the 
militant  Bishop  of  London  has  said  it  is,  a  lot  of  things 
may  be  coming  on  the  ticker-tape  besides  the  fluctua- 
tions in  the  price  of  stocks. 


December  21^,  19H. 

THE  Evening  Post  has  been  able  to  include 
Miss  Jane  Addams  in  the  list  of  ladies  and 
gentlemen  "who  would  discourage  agitation  at 
this  time  for  increased  military  preparation  on  the 
part  of  this  country."  Miss  Addams  is  "not  in 
Military  favour  of  preparedness."  She  is  satisfied 
Preparation  with  our  present  army  and  navy,  and  ap- 
parently indifferent  whether  we  have  enough  powder 
or  not.  She  points  out  that  Germany  was  prepared 
for  war  and  got  into  trouble.  She  would  not  have 
the  United  States  build  up  a  great  army  and  navy 
just  as  Hamilton  Holt's  plan  for  legal  peace  is  about 
to  go  through  and  international  disputes  will  be 
settled  by  interparliamentarian  courts  and  an  inter- 
national navy  will  police  the  seas. 

No;  not.    Moreover,  Miss  Addams  says: 

The  fear  of  war  being  manifested  in  the  United  States  is  a  part 
of  the  reflex  action  of  the  war  in  Europe.  The  enormity  of  the 
war  has  driven  the  sane  views  of  miUtarism  from  the  pubhc  mind. 
Viewpoints  are  distorted. 

All  war  will  in  time  be  eliminated  except  among  savage  tribes. 
Future  generations  will  put  it  in  the  same  class  with  pestilence 
and  plague.  Nations  will  settle  international  matters  by  bar- 
gaining with  each  other,  just  as  cities  now  bargain. 

Lovely!  Lovely!  But  perhaps  over-sanguine.  If 
these  observations  came  from  William  II,  or  even 
the  Crown  Prince,  or  Lord  Kitchener,  or  General 
Joffre,  there  would  certainly  be  warrant  for  telegraph- 
ing them  from  Chicago  and  printing  them  on  the 
front  page  of  the  Everiing  Post  with  four  and  a  half 

90 


THE  DIARY  OP  A  NATION  91 

inches  of  headlines  at  their  top.  Coming  from  Miss 
Addams,  it  would  have  been  kinder  of  the  Post  to 
print  them  inside,  with  less  spread,  and  where  they 
would  be  more  likely  to  escape  the  eagle  scrutiny  of 
Col.  T.  Roosevelt,  Miss  Addams's  late  leader  in 
political  combat.  We  believe  Col.  Roosevelt  will 
agree  with  us  that  Miss  Addams's  remarks  taste  a 
little  of  the  can,  and  that  she  has  missed  the  point  of 
the  prevailing  discussion.  Perhaps  the  Post  did  not 
give  her  the  right  tip.  What  is  mooted  is  not  whether 
we  shall  have  a  three-power  navy  ("perhaps  one 
greater  than  that  of  England  or  Germany,"  Miss 
Jane  suggests)  or  a  "great  army,"  but  whether  we 
have  on  hand  a  safe  minimum  of  military  and  naval 
junk  and  enough  available  military  and  naval  me- 
chanics to  work  it.  That  is  all  the  question  there  is. 
Mr.  Gardner  insists  with  loud  and  sometimes  rude 
vehemence  that  we  haven't.  The  Posfs  idea  that 
there  is  a  militarist  plot  afoot  is  just  a  Vesey  Street 
nightmare. 

The  President  said  in  his  message  to  Congress: 


A  powerful  nav^'^  we  have  always  regarded  as  our  proper  and 
natural  means  of  defense.  .  .  .  Our  ships  are  our  natural 
bulwarks.     ... 

From  the  first  we  have  had  a  clear  and  settled  policy  with 
regard  to  military  establishments.  We  never  have  had,  and 
while  we  retain  our  present  principles  and  ideals  we  never  will 
have,  a  large  standing  army.  If  asked.  Are  you  ready  to  defend 
yourselves?  we  reply.  Most  assuredly;  to  the  utmost;  and  yet 
we  shall  not  turn  America  into  a  military  camp.     .  .     The 

only  thing  we  can  do  (is)  ...  to  provide  a  system  by  which 
every  citizen  who  will  volunteer  for  the  training  may  be  made 
familiar  with  the  use  of  modern  arms  and  rudiments  of  drill  and 
manoeu^'Te,  and  the  maintenance  and  sanitation  of  camps.  We 
should  encourage  such  training  .  .  .  make  it  as  attractive 
as  possible,  and  so  induce  our  young  men  to  undergo  it.  .  ,  . 
It  is  right,  too,  that  the  National  Guard  of  the  States  should  be 


92  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

developed  and  strengthened.     .     .     .     More  than  this  carries 
with  it  a  reversal  of  the  whole  history  and  character  of  our  policy. 

That  is  very  well  if  it  is  done,  but  it  will  cost 
something  to  do  it  with  success.  Will  the  money  be 
voted? 

Moreover,  the  increase  of  the  regular  army  by 
twenty-five  thousand  men,  as  recommended  by  Secre- 
tary Garrison,  would  not  reverse  any  of  our  history 
or  character.  No  more  would  a  due  provision  of 
field-guns.  Mr.  Garrison  says  we  need  more;  also 
more  ammunition.  It  is  nothing  to  the  advantage  of 
character,  nor  does  it  embellish  history,  to  be  short  of 
powder  when  you  want  very  urgently  to  shoot  some 
off. 

It  is  true  that  from  the  first  we  have  had  a  policy 
about  military  establishments,  and  it  is  also  true  that 
we  might  have  had  a  worse  one  than  we  did,  but  not 
without  considerable  effort.  We  have  always  been 
slack  and  had  to  scramble  scandalously  when  we  got 
into  trouble.  Of  course  we  don't  want  a  large  stand- 
ing army,  but  if,  when  asked  if  we  are  ready  to 
defend  ourselves,  we  reply,  "Most  assuredly;  to  the 
utmost,"  we  are  usually  bluffing,  for  we  are  not  ready 
by  a  jugful.  We  have  had  to  fight  from  time  to 
time,  and  we  have  never  been  anywhere  near  ready 
when  the  clock  struck. 

We  do  not  want  to  be  too  ready.  That  would  be 
worse  than  the  way  we  have  been  used  to  manage. 
But  we  ought  to  make  a  decent  approximation  to 
readiness,  especially  in  these  days  when  there  is  so 
much  military  efficiency  knocking  around  in  the 
world. 

There's  nothing  new  in  the  idea  that  our  war  policy 
is  shiftless.  Everybody  who  knows  about  such 
things  knows  that.  Mr.  Root  did  as  much  to  im- 
prove it  as  our  numerous  and  pacific  people  would 


THE  DIARY  OF  A' NATION  93 

permit.  It  is  better  than  it  was,  but  not  good  enough 
yet,  and  this  is  a  good  time  to  stir  about  it,  just  as 
when  the  next  village  burns  up  is  a  good  time  for  our 
village  to  buy  a  fire-engine.  We  can  boost  our 
precious  military  ideal  an  eighth  of  an  inch  without 
lifting  the  roof  off  of  our  national  domicile. 


December  31  ^  19 H, 

A  LETTER  writer  to  the  Times  expresses  him- 
self as  deeply  grieved  to  see  "the  absolutely 
unrelenting  anti-German  feeling"  expressed 
in  that  paper  since  the  war  began.  If  that  is  guilt, 
we  are  all  guilty  together;  all,  that  is,  who  lined  up 
Jekylland  against  the  new  German  ideal  in  the  first 
Hyde  place.  There  is  a  German  Jekyll  and  a 
German  Hyde.  We  are  all  more  than  ever  against 
the  German  Hyde.  When  we  read  of  Germans  dead 
and  German  suffering  and  get  ready  to  soften  a  little, 
along  comes  another  batch  of  details  about  Belgium 
and  hardens  us  all  up  again  worse  than  ever. 

There  is  a  German  Jekyll.  We  read  about  him 
and  always  with  sympathy.  He  has  a  kind  heart, 
is  merciful  to  wounded  adversaries,  is  sorry  some- 
times for  the  suffering  he  has  caused;  but  he  is  under 
the  discipline  and  orders  of  the  German  Hyde,  whose 
aims  he  is  committed  to  fulfil  while  life  is  left  to  him 
and  by  means  that  have  sometimes  been  abhorrent  to 
humanity.  We  don't  hear  so  much  of  atrocities  as 
we  did,  and  distrust  what  we  do  hear,  but  there  are 
dreadful  stories  of  massacre  of  Belgian  peasants  and 
villagers,  and  of  ruthless,  punitive  destruction  of 
everything  Belgian,  that  persist  under  investigation 
and  keep  the  German  Hyde  well  up  in  the  forefront 
of  the  picture. 

"The  Germans  are  brave,"  writes  a  correspondent-, 
"but  the  Belgians  are  the  gamest  people  of  all." 
That  is  the  testimony  of  all  observers.  Sympathy 
with  the  Belgians  is  unrelenting.  The  most  pro- 
German  news  we  get  is  the  news  that  the  Germans 

'94 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  95 

are  playing  fair  about  Belgian  relief  and  facilitate  the 
distribution  to  Belgians  only  of  the  supplies  that 
stream  across  from  this  country.  That  is  something; 
it  is  very  much;  but  for  himself  the  German  Hyde 
seems  not  a  bit  concerned  to  keep  Belgians  alive. 
His  theory  now  is  that  Belgium  belongs  to  him,  and 
that  he  is  going  to  keep  it;  he  talks  about  selecting  a 
German  king  for  it,  and  it  would  doubtless  suit  his 
convenience  entnely  to  have  all  the  Belgians  dead 
and  re-people  this  convenient  country  with  con- 
venient Germans.  Naturally  and  of  course  that  dis- 
position breeds  a  counter  sentiment  of  resignation  to 
the  idea  that  the  German  Hyde  is  proceeding  fast 
along  the  road  that  leads  to  his  own  extermination. 
He  will  have  very  few  mourners  in  this  country. 
The  German  Jekyll  has  plenty  of  friends,  but  as  the 
German  Hyde  looks  around  on  our  considerable  circle 
of  spectators,  it  cannot  escape  his  notice  that  virtu- 
ally all  the  hands  he  sees  are  raised  thumbs  down. 

It  seems  a  pity  that  there  should  have  to  be  so 
much  discussion  of  the  needs  of  our  army  and  navy, 
but  it  is  quite  amusing  and  it  serves  to  take  our  minds 
a  little  off  of  the  war,  which  is  not  amusing  at  all. 
The  Evening  Post  reported  on  December  19th  the 
meeting  of  the  American  League  to  Limit  Arma- 
ments. There  were  about  one  hundred  persons  pres- 
ent, half  of  them  men.  Some  curious  remarks  were 
made.  Bishop  Greer  said*  "We  are  not  here  for 
any  political  purpose.  .  .  .  We  may,  however,  I 
think,  voice  our  approval  of  the  attitude  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  on  this  question."  Con- 
sidering that  the  President  favours  a  powerful  navy 
and  urges  military  traming  of  young  men,  it  seems 
odd  to  find  approval  of  him  "voiced"  by  Bishop 
Greer,  who  has  come  out  flat  for  non-resistance. 

And  there  is  the  remark  credited  to  Brother 
Hamilton  Holt:    "When  you  prepare  for  something 


96  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

you  get  what  you  prepare  for."  Brother  Holt  seems 
not  to  distinguish  between  preparation  and  precau- 
tion. When  we  prepare  for  dinner  we  get  dinner  if 
we  are  lucky,  but  when  we  prepare  for  fire  we  hope 
to  avert  it.  A  fire-engine  is  a  preparation  for  fire, 
but  a  precautionary  preparation.  So  any  army  we 
would  have,  or  any  navy,  would  be  a  precautionary 
preparation. 

Would  there  be  some  other  point  that  Brother 
Holt  would  wish  expounded.'^  No?  Then  forward  to 
Dr.  Nicholas  Butler,  who  somewhere  in  the  back 
reaches  of  his  mind  found  excuse  for  being  at  the 
meeting  in  the  intimation  that  contrary  to  our  tradi- 
tional policy  we  are  threatened  with  an  outbreak  of 
"competitive  armament-building."  But  all  arma- 
ment-building is  competitive.  All  the  armament  we 
have  is  competitive.  The  power  of  our  "powerful 
navy,"  which  President  Wilson  says  is  part  of  our 
traditional  policy,  is  related  to  the  power  of  other 
navies.  We  want  navy  enough  to  make  a  favourable 
impression  on  pacific  countries  like  Germany  or 
Japan,  a  regular  army  of  not  more  than  one  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  men,  and  as  many  available 
trained  reserve  troops  as  Switzerland.  That  and 
the  requisite  equipment  is  the  utmost  that  has  been 
suggested  by  any  responsible  person,  so  far  as  the 
observation  of  this  humble  and  pacific  semi- 
serious  journal  has  extended.  Non-resistants  may 
consistently  object  to  such  a  program  as  that,  but 
what  under  all  the  stars  has  Dr.  Butler  got  against 
it? 


January  7,  1915, 

A  FRIEND  of  this  paper  who  is  shocked  by  the 
great  war  and  deprecates  all  discussion  of 
military  preparation  for  this  country,  writes 
to  suggest  how  much  better  it  would  have  been  if  no 
armed  opposition  had  been  made  to  the  demands 
ATon-  and  designs  of  Germany.  Suppose,  our 
resistance  friend  says,  that  King  Albert,  "a  man  of 
understanding,"  had  let  the  Germans  quietly  pass 
southward  on  their  rapid  march  to  Paris;  that  Poin- 
care,  "having  the  brain  of  Napoleon  with  the  voice 
of  Tolstoi,"  had  succeeded  in  preventing  a  single 
shot;  that  an  immense  indemnity  had  been  paid  to 
the  invaders  and  a  few  colonies  surrendered.  What 
would  have  happened  .^^    « 

The  German  soldiers,  our  friend  thinks,  would 
have  become  ashamed  of  their  job;  the  Socialists 
would  have  come  to  the  top  in  Germany;  German 
students  would  have  flocked  to  the  Sorbonne;  France 
would  have  become  "the  fashion"  to  all  the  world 
with  great  resulting  profit  to  French  trade,  and  so  on 
and  so  on,  with  Saturnian  details  to  suit  the  taste. 

Never  mind  the  details,  but  the  great  question  is 
interesting.  Was  it  wise,  was  it  right,  was  it  worth 
while,  for  Belgium  to  resist?  No  doubt  she  would 
have  fared  very  well  materially  in  German  hands, 
and  so,  perhaps,  would  France.  We  see  what  resist- 
ance has  cost  her.  Does  it  pay  to  be  a  hero?  Does 
human  life  go  forward  or  backward  by  resistance  to 
force?  Is  Belgium's  immense,  irreparable  sacrifice 
all  a  mistake,  her  glory  too  dear-bought,  her  national 
soul  not  worth  the  price  of  it? 

9'? 


98  THE  DIARY  OP  A  NATION 

Of  course  we  do  not  think  so.  Every  shipload  of 
food  that  sails  to  Rotterdam  says  that  Americans  do 
not  think  so.  For  us  the  great,  clear  issue  of  this  war 
is  Belgium.  If  we  see  anything  right  at  all  in  all  this 
matter,  Belgium  is  a  martyr  to  civilization,  sister  to 
all  who  love  liberty  or  law;  assailed,  polluted, 
trampled  in  the  mire,  heel-marked  in  her  breast, 
tattered,  homeless,  but  sister  to  every  nation  whose 
God  is  greater  than  XJtilit3\ 

The  great  unconquerable  fact  of  the  great  war  is 
Belgium.  She  is  the  crucified  country  that  is  to  save 
the  nations.  They  cannot  let  her  go  down;  they  dare 
not,  unless  they  all  go  down  with  her.  It  is  she  that 
is  the  damnation  of  Germany,  and  yet  that  will  be 
Germany's  spiritual  salvation  in  that  Belgium's 
wrack  secures  it  that  Germany  shall  take  the  medicine 
poured  out  for  her.  War  is  dreadful.  This  modern 
machine-made  war  must  especially  be  an  abomina- 
tion before  the  Lord  as  it  is  before  men,  but  there  is 
a  worse  thing  than  war  that  kills  the  body,  and  that 
is  a  peace  that  destroys  the  spirit  and  leaves  the 
body  fat. 

On  Harvard's  Soldiers'  Field  is  the  monument  to 
the  ^ve  soldiers,  which,  by  Lowell's  choice,  bears 
Emerson's  lines: 


Though  love  repine,  and  reason  chafe. 
There  came  a  voice  without  reply — 
**  'Tis  man's  perdition  to  be  safe. 
When  for  the  truth  he  ought  to  die. 


That  is  the  great  answer  to  the  question  whether  it 
paid  Belgium  to  resist.  No  wise  person  wants  to  be  a 
hero  if  he  can  conveniently  get  out  of  it,  but  no  wise 
person  will  dodge  the  call  if  it  is  a  true  call.  There 
are  concerns  in  life  much  more  necessary  than  living, 
but  we  get  so  insufferably  attached  to  the  habit  of  life 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  99 

that  we  are  prone  to  neglect  everything  that  threatens 
to  conflict  with  it.  Such  a  war  as  this  that  is  going 
on  helps  to  get  us  all  out  of  this  rut  of  living  and  of 
thinking  that  the  whole  duty  of  man  is  to  eat  and  get 
rich.  A  perpetual  conflict  seems  to  go  on  between 
the  concerns  of  the  flesh  and  the  concerns  of  the  spirit. 
They  ought,  hand  in  hand,  to  trip  sweetly  along  to 
kingdom-come,  each  alleviating  and  helping  out  the 
other.  Instead  of  which  they  wrangle  a  good  part 
of  the  time,  and  periodically  come  to  outbreaks  of 
misunderstanding  that  jar  the  very  earth  and  make 
waste-paper  of  history. 

Well,  it  is  a  new  year,  and  we  shall  all  want  to  live 
through  it  and  see  what  sort  of  a  record  it  makes  for 
itself.  The  hundredth  year  from  Waterloo  is  no 
slouch  of  an  anniversary.  Waterloo  led  to  the  miser- 
able mess  of  the  Holy  Alliance,  and  a  shell-game 
between  diplomats  which  left  Europe  full  of  fragments 
of  peoples  in  cages  nursing  their  hurts.  Some  excel- 
lent improvements  have  been  carried  through  in  the 
course  of  a  hundred  years,  and  the  great  European 
problem  seems  to  be  very  much  better  understood 
now  than  then.  A  century  ago  the  rulers  of  Europe 
got  together  with  their  chief  managers  and  settled 
things.  This  time  it  promises  to  be  the  representa- 
tives of  the  peoples  of  Europe,  kings  or  otherwise, 
who  will  face  a  job  that  involves  not  merely  the  na- 
tional boundaries  of  Europe,  but  huge  holdings  in 
Asia  and  Africa,  and  questions  that  concern  and 
affect  every  country  in  the  world.  The  hard  rub 
that  one  sees  ahead  is  about  armament.  Germany 
may  be  beaten.  From  the  viewpoint  of  what  she 
undertook  to  do,  she  seems  beaten  now.  But  she  is 
not  yet  beaten  back  into  Germany,  and  even  when 
that  is  accomplished  there  will  still  be  a  lot  of  beating 
coming  to  her  before  she  is  a  pulp.  And  even  when 
she  has  been  beaten  to  a  pulp — if  any  one  out  of 


100  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

England  is  sanguine  enough  to  foresee  that — it  is 
hard  to  see  how  she  can  be  permanently  restrained 
from  gradually  re-tricking  her  Socialist-Democrats 
and  her  Kultur  and  going  out  on  the  road  again  after 
loot.  She  can't  be  kept  in  a  cage;  disembowelled 
she  would  soon  make  herself  new  linings;  her  people 
are  too  numerous  to  be  destroyed,  and  doubtless  too 
valuable;  nobody  but  Prussia  wants  the  job  of  govern- 
ing them.  Essen  can  be  blown  to  bits,  and  probably 
will  be,  but  that  would  be  mere  poetry,  and  while  it 
would  be  nice,  it  would  not  hinder  the  great  German 
murder-mill  from  growing  again.  What  people  will 
want  if  the  Allies  win  is  assurance  for  the  future,  for  a 
generation  or  two,  that  the  sleep  of  honest  people  in 
four  continents  will  not  be  disturbed  by  the  rattle  and 
clang  of  the  Krupp  forges  in  the  night,  getting  ready 
to  blow  the  lid  off  the  world. 

Holding  the  Germans  is  going  to  be  hard  work  un- 
less the  Germans  will  turn  in  and  help.  They  are 
handy  people,  and  if  they  conclude,  or  can  be  induced, 
to  hold  on  to  themselves,  their  assistance  will  be 
much  appreciated.  The  practical  way  for  them  to 
show  promise  of  helping  with  their  difficult  case  is  to 
democratize  their  government  and  let  the  more  peace- 
able part  of  their  population  have  a  louder  voice  in 
determining  their  destinies. 

Whether  there  is  anything  really  practical  in  the 
idea  of  an  international  police  force,  naval  and  mili- 
tary, to  keep  order  in  the  world,  is  hard  to  say.  The 
Allies,  as  far  as  they  go,  constitute  such  a  force  now; 
a  greater  force  would  only  mean  a  greater  alliance, 
and,  of  course,  alliances  are  delicate  crockery  and 
liable  to  break.  And  an  international  police  force 
would  imply  a  maintenance  of  present  boundaries 
and  "spheres" — the  status  quo — which  would  be  very 
foreign  to  the  habits  of  mankind.  But,  after  all,  this 
is   1915,  the  hundredth  year  from  Waterloo,  and 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  101 ; 

nothing  that  looks  good  for  the  world  should  be 
turned  down  because  it  is  a  novelty.  Moreover  and 
furthermore,  this  is  the  age  of  machines,  in  which  one 
of  the  great  competitions  is  that  between  human  life 
and  machinery.  If  Europe  shall  conclude  after  due 
continuance  of  contention  that  this  current  factory- 
made  war  is  a  joke  of  Vulcan  on  humanity,  and  that 
the  laugh  is  too  much  on  man,  irrespective  of  nation- 
ality, that  will  help,  of  course,  very  much  to  arrive 
at  terms  of  settlement. 

But  everything  in  its  due  time.  As  yet  the  fac- 
tory-made war  is  still  running  strong.  Our  anti- 
armament  friends  here  who  calculate  that  by  the  time 
it  is  over  there  will  be  no  efficient  war-power  left  in 
Europe  are  wrong.  Whoever  comes  out  on  top  over 
there  will  come  out  immensely  strong  in  trained 
troops  and  military  implements.  It  is  worth  re- 
membering that  these  States  after  the  exhausting 
four  years  of  the  Civil  War  were  for  the  moment 
masters  of  the  ablest  military  force  in  the  world,  and 
had  only  to  whisper  to  Napoleon  III  to  get  his  troops 
withdrawn  from  Mexico. 


January  H,  1915, 

A  GOOD  many  people  have  been  would-to-God- 
ding  of  late  that  they  could  get  Mr.  Bryan 
out  of  the  State  Department. 
Of  course ! 
We  may  yet  have  to  pay  for  what  good  we  have 

M  wis  ^^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^^  good  that  is  in  that  worthy 
man  by  suffering  devilish  consequences 
from  the  foolishness  that  has  always  been  in  him. 
The  would-to-Godders  point  out  that  even  if  he 
is  nothing  worse  than  a  nullity  in  the  State  De- 
partment, these  are  not  convenient  times  to  have  a 
nullity  at  the  head  of  the  State  Department.  The 
President,  they  say,  should  have  the  help  of  a  Secre- 
tary of  State  whom  he  could  lean  upon,  instead  of 
one  who  is  himself  a  diplomatic  problem. 

One  can  easily  sympathize  with  this  position,  and 
yet  Mr.  Bryan  has  done  better  in  his  place  at  the  top 
of  the  Cabinet  than  could  have  been  expected.  His 
spirit  and  temper  have  been  better  than  was  even 
hoped  for.  His  absolute  technical  unfitness  for  the 
place  was  always  obvious,  but  his  disabilities  have 
become  a  more  serious  matter  since  the  world  war 
broke  out  on  us.  The  best  that  can  be  said  of  him  as 
Secretary  of  State  is  that  probably  he  does  not  con- 
sciously hinder  the  President  in  what  he  wants  to  do. 

For  that  reason  it  is  conceivable  that  the  President 
prefers  him  to  some  one  more  competent.  Dr.  An- 
drew White  says,  in  an  essay  on  Bismarck,  that  Bis- 
marck was  never  able  to  work  well  with  equals. 
When  he  was  young  he  could  not  work  with  his 
brother  in  managing  the  family  estate.     As  Ambas- 

102 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  103 

sador  he  had  only  subordinates  around  him;  as 
Minister  President  he  ruled  Prussia;  as  Chancellor  he 
was  the  only  Minister  of  the  Empire.  He  would 
have  no  Imperial  Cabinet.  He  called  about  him 
able  men,  but  as  secretaries,  not  ministers.  He 
would  have  "subordinates  but  not  colleagues." 

President  Wilson  seems  a  good  deal  like  Bismarck 
in  that.  Perhaps  Washington  was  that  way,  too. 
Men  who  have  in  them  a  great  conception  and  are 
trying  to  make  it  come  true,  are  apt,  no  doubt,  to  be 
lonely  workers.  Mr.  Wilson  works  as  he  can,  and 
works  best,  apparently,  with  helpful  subordinates. 
He  has  not  got  the  king-like  quality  that  Roosevelt 
had  of  being  primus  inter  pares  and  using  his  supe- 
riors. It  is  not  to  quarrel  with  him  for  being  what  he 
is  and  doing  his  work  as  he  can,  but  it  is  interesting  to 
understand  him.  He  is  worth  understanding.  He 
may  be  Cromwell  in  some  resemblances  and  Bismarck 
in  others,  but  he  is  never  Charles  the  First  nor  Wil- 
helm  II  nor  T.  R.  nor  W.  J.  B.,  and  he  never  will  be 
either  successful  or  dangerous  by  having  captured  by 
his  personality  the  imaginations  of  infatuated  adher- 
ents. 

Not  but  that  people  who  work  with  him  like  him. 
They  do;  they  more  than  like  him.  But  his  hold  is 
on  the  mental  side  of  men,  not  the  emotional  side. 
Bryan  can  beat  him  hands  down  in  working  simple 
folks  on  their  emotional  side,  and  so  can  Roosevelt. 
There  is  no  witchery  about  him  except  his  exceptional 
handiness  in  the  choice  and  arrangement  of  words, 
and  his  ability  to  use  them  vocally  or  in  writing. 
His  force  of  character  is  not  witchery.  It  is  a  great 
fact. 

President  Wilson  works  as  he  does  because  he  is 
what  he  is.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  choice,  but  of  condi- 
tion. We  may  wish  he  worked  differently;  that  he 
met  more  intimately  a  greater  variety  of  men,  and 


104  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

advised  with  them;  that  he  had  a  more  eflScient 
Secretary  of  State  and  a  Secretary  of  the  Navy  who 
inspired  less  disgust  in  sophisticated  men.  Any 
reasonably  good  observer  can  suggest  at  least  as 
many  improvements  in  Mr.  Wilson  and  his  methods 
and  ifiis  Cabinet  as  a  lady  about  to  hire  a  house  would 
suggest  to  a  prospective  landlord.  No  doubt  a 
competent  improver  could  brighten  Mr.  Wilson  up 
wonderfully ,  and  by  teaching  him  what  and  how,  could 
bring  his  administration  right  up  flush  with  the 
Republican  conception  of  the  Republican  record. 

But,  after  all,  he  is  not  a  property  which  we  are 
about  to  hire,  but  something  that  we  are  committed 
to.  We  are  in  for  two  more  years  of  him,  and  they 
seem  likel^^  to  be  pretty  ticklish  years.  We  can  nei- 
ther swap  him  nor  make  him  over,  and  it  seems  the 
more  sagacious  part  for  us  to  take  him  as  he  is  and 
resign  ourselves  to  letting  him  work  as  he  can,  and 
with  any  one  whom  he  finds  acceptable. 

There  is  the  more  point  to  this  large-minded  atti- 
tude in  us,  because  the  times  are  so  monstrous  queer. 
There  is  going  on  in  Europe  this  prodigious  struggle 
between  democracy  and  autocracy;  precedent  is  up  a 
tree,  tradition  is  hiding  in  the  cellar,  the  old  order  is 
smashed  to  bits,  and  the  plans  for  the  new  order  are 
being  discussed  by  all  the  seventh  sons  in  the  world; 
there  never  was  such  perplexity  about  the  future,  and 
never  so  brisk  a  demand  for  constructive  minds  to 
shape  it.  In  all  this  medley  and  muddle,  Mr.  Wilson, 
partly  because  he  is  our  President,  but  considerably 
because  he  is  Woodrow  Wilson,  stands  out  as  the  most 
conspicuous  new-model  democrat  in  the  world.  Not 
yet,  even  after  two  years  of  remarkable  administra- 
tive exploits,  has  his  measure  been  taken;  but  every 
one  knows  that  he  is  very  much  out  of  the  ordinary, 
and  there  are  those  who  think  they  see  in  him  the 
most  notable  combination  of  qualities  and  abilities 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  105 

now  being  shown  in  the  great  human  exhibition.  He 
was  elected  President  as  an  intelligent  radical ;  a  man 
who  had  thought  long  and  deeply  on  government; 
had  constructive  as  well  as  reformatory  ideas,  and 
seemed  suitable  to  be  the  leader  of  Democrats  and 
the  head  of  the  government  at  a  time  when  a  great 
economic  revolution  was  coming  to  a  head.  He  was 
elected  not  to  follow  precedents,  but  to  break  with 
them;  not  to  insure  prosperity,  but  to  dispute  with  it; 
not  merely  to  uphold  the  law,  but  to  change  it.  The 
people  of  our  country  did  not  like  what  they  had 
been  getting.  They  elected  Mr.  Wilson  because  they 
wanted  something  different.  They  have  got  some- 
thing different  largely  as  a  result  of  his  influence. 
Before  they  have  had  time  to  discover  whether  or 
not  they  like  what  they  have  got,  along  comes  this 
prodigious  row  in  Europe,  because  a  very  large  pro- 
portion of  the  countries  over  there  want  something 
different  and  cannot  get  it  without  fighting.  If  the 
notion  once  gets  abroad  that  Mr.  Wilson  is  an  excep- 
tionally good  hand  at  understanding  what  disordered 
peoples  want  and  helping  them  to  get  it,  there  is  no 
telling  how  much  foreign  practice  may  press  in  on  our 
President's  attention. 

Altogether  he  has  a  good  deal  to  think  about,  and 
we  must  let  him  do  his  thinking  as  he  can  and  not 
bother  him  excessively  about  whom  he  advises  with 
or  other  details.  His  immediate  task  is  to  be  neutral 
himself  and  keep  our  government  neutral,  and  just  in 
that  capacity  both  to  its  ov/n  people  and  the  neigh- 
bours. In  the  discharge  of  that  task  he  has  been 
punching  up  the  British  brethren  about  their  rather 
impulsive  treatment  of  our  commerce  with  neutral 
ports.  It  had  to  be  done,  and  it  seems  to  have  been 
done  with  care  and  skill  and  propriety,  and  all  of  us, 
whatever  our  feelings  about  the  war,  must  stand 
behind  the  doing  of  it.     We  neutrals  have  to  trade 


106  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

under  flie  rules  for  neutrals,  and  have  an  obligation 
to  see  that  the  rules  are  respected  even  by  combatants 
whose  cause  enlists  our  individual  hearts.  As  in- 
dividuals we  can  feel  as  we  will  and  play  what  favour- 
ites we  choose,  but  our  government,  so  long  as  it 
undertakes  to  be  neutral,  must  live  up  to  its  under- 
taking. It  cannot  be  a  neutral  and  an  ally  at  the 
same  time. 

The  proposition  that  the  United  States  should  not 
be  neutral  has  not  yet  been  even  discussed.  The 
immense  preponderance  of  public  sentiment  in  fa- 
vour of  the  Allies  and  the  democratic  conception  of 
government  is  unmistakable  and  undisputed.  To 
what  it  might  lead,  to  what  it  may  lead  as  the  war 
develops,  cannot  be  forecast.  The  German  mad- 
ness might  reach  a  pitch  of  frenzy  and  an  enormity  of 
conduct  that  would  upset  the  equilibrium  of  the 
American  mind  and  bring  us  out  heaven  knows 
where.  But  so  far,  undoubtedly,  public  sentiment 
here  is  all  for  keeping  out,  and  the  opinion  that  pre- 
vails is  that  so  we  shall  best  serve  not  only  ourselves, 
but  humanity.  In  the  way  of  immediate  armed  as- 
sistance we  could  do  very  little  for  the  Allies  if  we 
joined  them,  and  we  should  very  much  diminish  the 
possibility  of  being  useful  to  all  hands  when  at  last 
there  comes  a  pause. 

But  what  we  can  do  as  neutrals  to  modify  the 
horror  of  this  war  we  should  do,  and  do  it  as  occasion 
offers,  not  only  generously,  but  boldly. 


January  ^1, 1915. 

THE  gentleman  who  forecast  some  time  since 
that  the  war  would  end  the  last  of  January 
is  heartily  invited  to  make  good.  The  war  is 
plugging  along  in  a  dull,  dogged  monotony  that 
makes,  at  the  moment,  poor  reading,  and  lets  a 
pj  .  .J  dreadful  surfeit  of  marital  delinquencies 
^  ^  back  into  the  first-page  headlines  of 
the  daily  papers.  Nobody  is  beaten  yet,  though 
Austria  comes  nearest  to  it;  there  is  plenty  of  power 
left  in  all  the  combatants,  and  considering  the  season 
a  great  deal  of  fighting  is  going  on.  Rumania  is 
expected  to  join  the  Allies,  and  that  is  important  if 
true,  as  Rumania  can  put  into  the  field  enough  troops 
to  facilitate  considerably  the  destruction  of  Austria. 
Italy  is  said  to  be  full  of  military  preparations;  Eng- 
land's new  troops  are  reported  to  be  well  up  to  expec- 
tation, both  in  number  and  in  forwardness  of  training. 
Nothing  looks  like  peace.  Everything  looks  like 
war  to  the  bitter  end,  which  saves  thought,  because 
it  is  impossible  to  think  of  a  rearrangement  of  Europe, 
and  of  life  in  general  after  a  deadlock.  If  Germany 
can  thrash  the  rest  of  Europe,  Germany  can  arrange 
the  future.  If  the  Allies  can  thrash  Germany  to  a 
standstill,  the  Allies  can  arrange  the  future;  but  an 
arrangement  between  a  still  powerful  and  unbeaten 
though  unsuccessful  Germany  and  unbeaten  Allies  is 
a  harder  nut  than  even  the  most  ambitious  peace- 
maker is  able  to  crack.  A  huge  dose  of  violent  medi- 
cine has  been  poured  out  for  this  ailing  world,  and  so 
far  as  appears,  it  has  got  to  be  taken  to  the  last  drop. 
The  pre-engagement  of  all  the  forces  of  mind  and 

107 


108  THE  DIAEY  OF  A  NATION 

weapon  of  Europe  with  Europe's  own  affairs  is  of 
obvious  advantage  to  our  administration  here  in 
leaving  Mexico  absolutely  in  the  Lord's  hands.  A 
country  whose  posture  is  so  described  is  expected  to 
save  itself  or  go  under.  To  which  alternative  Mexico 
is  proceeding  just  now  is  a  matter  of  opinion  that 
varies  with  what  happens  to  be  reported  in  the  morn- 
ing paper.  President  Wilson,  in  his  Jackson  Day 
speech,  defined  his  attitude  towards  Mexico  with 
entire  clearness.  He  means  to  keep  hands  off.  He 
said: 

Until  the  end  of  the  Diaz  regime  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  people 
of  Mexico  never  had  a  look-in  in  determining  who  should  be  their 
governors  or  what  their  government  should  be.  Now,  I  am  for 
the  eighty  per  cent.  It  is  none  of  my  business,  and  it  is  none  of 
your  business  how  long  they  take  in  determining  it.  .  .  . 
The  country  is  theirs.  The  government  is  theirs.  The  liberty, 
if  they  can  get  it,  and  God  speed  them  in  getting  it,  is  theirs. 
And,  so  far  as  my  influence  goes,  while  I  am  President,  nobody 
shall  interfere  with  them. 

That  is  very  definite.  Mr.  Wilson  will  be  Presi- 
dent for  two  years  more,  barring  accidents,  and  per- 
haps for  six  years  more.  Any  gentleman  who  has  a 
different  plan  from  his  for  dealing  with  Mexico  is 
invited  to  submit  it  for  discussion.  But  meanwhile, 
to  most  of  us,  the  Wilson  plan  looks  about  as  good  as 
any. 

Present  prospects  are  excellent  that  the  end  of  the 
great  war  will  find  us  the  most  disliked  nation  in  the 
world.  The  Germans  will  hate  us  because  our  sym- 
pathies were  not  with  them,  and  the  Allies  will  prob- 
ably hate  us  because,  approving  their  cause,  we  would 
not  go  in  with  them,  but  bothered  them  about  neu- 
trals' right  and  took  big  prices  for  what  we  sold 
them.     Germany  is  mad  now  because  we  sell  war 


THE  DIAKY  OF  A  NATION  109 

material  to  the  Allies,  and  the  Allies  are  getting  mad 
because  we  talk  about  buying  German  ships  to  trade 
in.  We  are  in  the  position  of  being  defended  at  a 
vast  cost  from  Teutonic  aggression,  and  being  peevish 
about  the  details  of  the  immunity  we  enjoy.  Not 
that  we  are  to  blame,  but  the  natural  fate  of  a  neutral 
seems  to  be  to  be  disliked.  Belgium  is  gathering 
the  proper  fruits  of  neutrality.  We  shall  probably 
escape  the  fruits,  but  harvest  the  sentiments  that 
would  accompany  them.  The  position  on  the  fence 
is  not  altogether  delectable,  aside  from  the  risk,  not 
quite  negligible,  of  being  knocked  off. 


February  4, 1915, 

MR.  BRYAN'S  letter  to  Senator  Stone,  telling 
what  careful  neutrals  we  are,  conies  timely, 
in  that  it  defines  in  detail  what  ought  to  be 
expected  of  neutrals.  Nobody,  so  far,  except  profes- 
sional Republicans,  finds  much  fault  with  the  letter 
Mr.  Bryan:  nor  denies  that  the  duty  of  neutrals  as 
Dr.Dernhurg  laid  down  in  it  is  about  right.  Senator 
Stone  comes  from  Missouri,  a  State  particularly 
well  stocked  with  citizens  of  German  descent,  who 
require  to  be  shown  why  our  country  is  not  doing 
more  to  help  the  Germans  win.  Some  of  them, 
and  the  pro-German  brethren  generally,  want  our 
government  to  prohibit  the  sale  of  war  material 
to  the  fighting  nations.  Mr.  Bryan's  letter  en- 
lightens them  on  that  point,  disclosing  that  it  is 
always  the  way  for  neutrals  to  accommodate  bel- 
ligerents with  anything  they  have  to  sell  so  long  as 
the  belligerents'  credits  hold  out.  Fifty  years  ago, 
when  a  difference  had  to  be  fought  out  in  this 
country,  our  fathers  on  both  sides  bought  what  they 
could  of  what  they  needed  in  Europe,  especially  in 
England,  and  got  it  home  the  best  they  could  and 
used  it  to  blow  their  brethren's  heads  off.  Being  so 
kindly  accommodated  then  in  our  time  of  need,  it 
would  ill  become  us  to  decline  in  our  turn  a  like  ac- 
commodation to  Europe. 

Mr.  Bryan  explained  further  that  under  the  rules 
of  this  game  of  selling  war  supplies  to  belligerents  the 
buyer  is  expected  to  carry  home  his  own  parcels,  and 
if  his  antagonist  can  get  his  purchases  away  from  him 
on  the  way  home,  that  is  all  fair  and  nothing  that  a 

110 


THE  DL\RY  OF  A  NATION  111 

neutral  is  concerned  about.  It  happens  just  now, 
while  most  of  the  German  fleet  is  playing  a  home  en- 
gagement in  the  back  yard  of  Heligoland,  that  the 
road  to  Europe  is  much  safer  to  parcels  addressed  to 
the  Allies  than  to  consignments  for  the  Turks,  the 
Austrians,  or  the  Germans.  But  that  just  happens 
so  and  is  no  fault  of  ours;  and  so  Mr.  Bryan  reminds 
Mr.  Stone,  who,  besides  being  from  Missouri,  is 
chairman  of  the  Foreign  Relations  Committee  of  the 
Senate. 

We  suppose  Mr.  Bryan  w  ould  not  have  had  to  be 
at  all  these  pains  and  expense  to  publish  the  rudi- 
ments of  neutrality  if  our  pro-German  brethren  were 
not  so  indefatigably  diligent  in  trying  to  twist  us  out 
of  our  proper  neutrality  and  get  us  into  a  scrape  with 
the  Allies.  To  aid  them  in  this  endeavour,  which 
surely  no  unhyphenated  American  can  approve,  the 
German  Government  maintains  here  among  other 
agents  Dr.  Bernhard  Dernburg.  Dr.  Dernburg's 
office  is  to  make  Germans  look  good  to  us.  You 
may  read  about  him  in  Mr.  Wile's  book  about  the 
Men  About  the  Kaiser.  He  is  a  sagacious,  able  man, 
not  a  German  by  race,  but  a  Jew,  and  his  job  has  been 
this  long  time  to  clean  up  after  Germans  and  put 
things  to  rights  that  they  had  muddled.  He  came  to 
notice  first  as  a  banker  who  took  over  bankrupt  Ger- 
man enterprises,  reorganized  them  and  set  them  on 
their  legs  again.  The  Kaiser,  seeing  how  good  he  was 
at  that,  drafted  him  away  from  that  very  profitable 
business  and  put  him  on  a  small  salary  in  charge  of 
the  German  Colonial  Office,  which  was  spending  a 
lot  of  money  and  getting  very  meagre  results.  Dr. 
Dernburg  obediently  took  hold  of  it,  discharged  as 
.many  incompetent  German  officials  as  he  could,  and 
improved  the  colonial  situation  (so  Mr.  Wile  says) 
very  much,  but  made  so  manj^  powerful  enemies  in 
doing  it  that  they  presently  were  able  to  get  him  out 


112  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

of  office.  So,  when  the  war  broke  out,  he  was  avail- 
able to  help  the  Kaiser  in  some  new  way,  and  was 
sent  to  New  York  to  do  what  he  could  to  disabuse  the 
American  mind  of  the  impression,  so  prevalent,  that 
Germany  had  gone  out  of  her  head  and  was  out  to 
conquer  the  world. 

Dr.  Dernburg  seems  always  to  have  done  well 
everything  he  has  put  his  hand  to,  and  this  big  job 
of  cleaning  up  after  Germans  in  the  United  States 
he  has  dealt  with  in  a  fashion  worthy  of  his  record. 
There  has  been  some  feeling  that  he  has  been  almost 
too  good  and  too  busy  with  it,  and  has  affected  public 
sentiment  here  more  than  it  was  proper  for  public 
sentiment  to  be  affected  in  a  neutral  nation.  For 
our  part,  we  do  not  see  it  so.  In  so  far  as  he  has 
attracted  attention  to  himself  and  his  utterances  and 
away  from  the  Germans  and  their  utterances,  he 
has,  of  course,  done  well  by  Germany,  because  his 
utterances  are  skillful  at  least,  whereas  the  detach- 
ment from  fact  in  the  most  of  the  German  utterances 
is  so  palpable  that  the  easiest-going  understanding 
can  hardly  fail  to  detect  it.  If  all  the  Germans 
could  have  sat  tight  and  let  Dr.  Dernburg  say  and 
do  for  them,  no  one  can  say  what  he  might  have  ac- 
complished. But  the  trouble  has  been  that  they 
have  all  been  active  and  vocal  at  home  and  abroad, 
and  whether  multiplying  horrors  in  Belgium  or 
issuing  learned  and  exceedingly  vulnerable  addresses 
from  Bonn  or  writing  to  the  newspapers  in  New 
York,  have  never  suffered  us  to  forget  how  very 
German  Germans  are  and  how  very  different  both 
in  mental  process  and  in  behaviour  from  Dr.  Bernard 
Dernburg,  the  German  alleviator. 

"We  Germans,"  he  said,  at  New  Rochelle  the  other 
night,  "love  the  French  and  the  Belgians  who  were 
forced  into  the  war."  Tut,  tut.  Doctor!  You  love 
them,  no  doubt,  but  heaven  help  the  object  of  such 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  113 

affection  as  the  Germans  have  lavished  on  Belgium! 
Have  you  read  Cardinal  Mercier's  pastoral  letter? 
A  grand  letter,  that,  Dr.  Dernburg.  You  cannot  but 
admire  it.  But  it  is  hard  to  get  over,  and  so  is  the 
report  of  the  French  commission  that  investigated 
the  atrocity  charges,  and  still  more  terrible  stories 
than  that  report  contains  come  here  by  private  letter 
or  by  word  of  mouth  of  returning  travellers.  It  is 
hard  to  make  a  soothing  or  ingratiating  picture  of  the 
affectionate  Germans  while  they  are  so  infernally 
active.  But  you  could  do  it.  Doctor,  if  any  one 
could.  Stay  on  with  us,  and  when  it  is  all  over  you 
shall  have  a  better  chance,  for  you  shall  be  the  funeral 
orator  of  Pan-Germanism. 


February  25, 1915. 

OUR  government's  recent  notices  to  Germany 
and  England  gave  general  satisfaction  here 
at  home.  They  were  polite  and  definite.  The 
one  to  Germany  was  called  out  by  Germany's  recent 
warning  to  all  vessels  to  keep  out  of  the  English 
Notices  to  Channel  and  other  waters  that  surround 
Germany  the  British  Isles.  It  said  that  even  Ger- 
man submarines  would  be  expected  to  observe,  even 
in  British  waters,  the  formalities  heretofore  custo- 
mary in  dealings  of  belligerents  with  neutrals  and 
merchant  ships,  and  that  we  should  take  it  hard  if 
they  didn't.  The  one  to  England  said  that  if  the 
practice  of  sailing  English  ships  in  perilous  British 
waters  under  the  American  flag  became  a  habit, 
it  would  be  liable  to  lead  to  objectionable  conse- 
quences to  American  shipping,  and  that  we  should 
take  it  hard  if  it  did,  and  would  not  England  be  so 
good  as  to  check  it.? 

Pretty  much  all  the  newspapers  hereabouts  except 
Herr  Ridder's  have  approved  both  of  these  notes. 
Whatever  may  be  the  lack  of  technical  qualifications 
of  our  Secretary  of  State,  it  has  not  affected  the 
important  papers  issued  by  the  State  Department 
in  connection  with  the  war  in  Europe.  Mr.  Brj^an's 
letter  on  neutral  rights  was  excellent.  So  are  these 
notes  to  England  and  Germany.  It  is  a  great  satis- 
faction in  these  grave  concerns  to  have  proper  action 
properly  taken.  The  authorship  of  these  papers  is 
credited  to  Mr.  Robert  Lansing,  the  Counsellor  of 
the  State  Department.  The  approval  and  bacldng 
of  them  must  be  credited  to  the  administration, 

114 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  115 

which  has  been  getting  so  many  hard  knocks  about 
the  shipping  bill  that  a  slice  of  credit  does  not  come 
amiss. 

The  note  to  Germany  points  out  very  gently  that  if 
commanders  of  German  vessels  acting  upon  the  pre- 
sumption that  the  flag  of  the  United  States  was  not 
being  used  in  good  faith  should  destroy  on  the  high 
seas  an  American  vessel  or  the  lives  of  American 
citizens,  our  government  could  hardly  help  viewing 
it  as  an  indefensible  violation  of  neutral  rights,  and 
would  be  apt  to  take  any  steps  necessary  to  safeguard 
American  Hves  and  property  and  secure  to  Americans 
their  rights  on  the  high  seas. 

One  infers  from  that,  that  if  a  German  submarine, 
acting  impulsively,  should  punch  and  sink  an  Ameri- 
can ship  that  was  going  about  its  lawful  business,  the 
explanation  that  the  submarine  did  not  believe  it  was 
really  ours  would  be  coldly  received,  and  there  would 
be  something  doing.  The  chance  of  that,  however, 
might  not  affect  Germany's  action.  Presumably, 
she  would  not  wantonly  stir  this  pacific  country'-  into 
hostile  action,  but  England  is  trying  to  starve  her  out 
and  she  does  not  like  it,  and  if  by  use  of  submarines 
she  could  starve  out  England,  perhaps  she  would, 
even  at  the  cost  of  abrading  American  sensibilities. 

One  finds  in  print  the  English-born  suggestion  that 
the  German  war-masters  fully  realize  that  they  can- 
not win  and  foresee  that  the  longer  they  strive  the 
worse  it  will  go  with  them,  and  are  casting  about 
for  a  good  chance  to  quit,  and  think  they  will  best 
find  it  by  grieving  and  making  hostile  what  remaining 
neutral  nations  there  are,  so  that  with  all  Christen- 
dom piling  onto  them  they  can  say  that  the  odds  are 
impossible  and  that  it  would  be  mere  waste  of  good 
Kanonenfutter  to  continue  hostilities.  If  that  is  so 
(but  probably  it  isn't),  peace  may  come  sooner  than 
expected,  since  the  Allies  also  will  be  glad  to  have 


116  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

some  young  men  left  alive  if  it  seems  compatible  with 
the  best  interests  of  civilization.  But,  of  course,  the 
more  necessary  results  of  this  prodigious  war  should 
be  attained  before  it  ends,  including  that  most  neces- 
sary one  of  all,  the  cure  of  the  Germans,  so  that  they 
will  be  safe  in  the  world  and  the  world  safe  with 
them  in  it. 

For  the  Germans  are  not  going  to  stop  after  this 
war.  They  will  pick  themselves  up  and  go  on  ajs  hard 
as  ever.  There  will  be  a  lot  of  them  to  be  fed  and 
clothed,  and  they  will  have  to  work  with  all  their  skill 
and  energy  to  do  it.  They  will  get  their  trade  back. 
Everybody  says  so.  H.  G.  Wells  says  so;  Edison  says 
so.  They  will  get  rich  and  strong  again;  it  can't 
be  prevented  without  destroying  them,  and  they 
are  too  many  to  destroy.  Neither  would  it  be  right 
to  prevent  it,  but  it  is  right  to  try  to  effect  that  the 
Germans  shall  come  out  of  the  war  permanently 
cured  of  the  idea  that  they  are  the  only  really  valuable 
people  on  earth;  cured  of  the  more  objectionable 
details  of  Prussianism,  militaristic  and  professional; 
improved  in  their  travel-manners;  less  submissive  to 
drill-sergeants  and  brutish  officers,  and  cured  finally 
of  the  doctrine  of  "f rightfulness"  in  war;  so  cured  of 
it  that  for  a  thousand  years,  as  the  Kaiser  would  say, 
considerate  persons  wfll  avoid  to  mention  "frightful- 
ness"  to  a  German  soldier  for  fear  to  make  him  sick 
at  his  stomach.  Certainly  this  war  ought  at  least  to 
put  organized  military  "{rightfulness"  so  definitely 
on  the  junk  pile  that  even  the  German  General  Staff 
will  abjure  it,  and  it  will  never  again  appeal  to  the  re- 
sourceful German  mind.  Somehow,  when  this  mar- 
velous family  of  ant-people  starts  in  its  business 
again,  it  must  be  started  right,  so  that  it  can  make  a 
safe  and  kindly  progress  towards  real  prosperity. 

That  seems  a  great  deal  to  ask  of  the  war.  But  it 
is  not  all.     Some  of  the  English  radicals  ask  from  it  a 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  117 

lot  of  cure  for  England;  democratization;  the  restora- 
tion of  the  land  to  the  tillers  of  it;  the  re-creation  of 
the  English  people  largely  at  the  expense  of  the  Eng- 
lish aristocracy.  Then  there  cannot  but  be  many 
who  feel  that  the  hands  of  the  clock  are  passing  the 
hour  when  England  alone,  or  any  other  single  nation, 
can  rule  the  seas.  And  one  is  told,  on  the  one  hand, 
that  England  can  hardly  get  all  the  improvements 
that  she  needs  unless  she  is  whipped,  and  is  assured, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  nothing  but  a  thorough 
drubbing  will  do  the  job  for  Germany. 
I;.  It  is  mighty  difficult  and  expensive  doctoring  these 

sick  countries.  To  persuade  Germany,  or  England, 
that  she  must  be  beaten  for  her  highest  good  is 
imaginable.     But  how  persuade  both  of  them? 

Aid,  then,  the  industrial  apparatus  of  Belgium 
and  Northern  France  is  destroyed,  or  badly  damaged, 
while  as  yet  the  whole  industrial  apparatus  of  Ger- 
many stands  unharmed.  What  cure  for  that  inequity 
if  the  war  stops  soon,  so  that  Belgium  and  France  can 
get  their  markets  back  before  Germany  grabs  them? 
A  good  deal  more  than  office  work  remains  to  be 
done,  apparently,  before  this  war  is  settled. 


March  11,  1915. 

MR.  ROOT  has  emerged  from  the  Senate  with 
the  finest  line  of  obituary  notices  seen  in 
print  this  long  time.  Everything  was  done 
about  him  except  to  hold  a  joint  memorial  meeting 
of  the  House  and  Senate  and  expound  his  virtues  in 
,.    „      declamations.     To   be  sure,  in  some  of   his 

Mr.  Hoot  ,-  1    .•  1  1  n       •    .      1 

notices  commendation  has  been  alleviated 
by  regrets,  as  when  the  New  Republic,  recording  his 
achievements  and  expounding  his  defects  as  a  leader, 
concludes  that  "he  has  failed  because  of  the  absence 
of  a  sympathetic  and  creative  imagination."  The 
two  great  specifics  for  quickening  the  sympathies  and 
the  creative  imagination  are  "rum  and  true  religion." 
Possibly  Mr.  Root  has  been  too  abstemious;  possibly 
he  has  missed  his  due  allowance  of  religion.  He  has 
not  been  at  all  like  Daniel  Webster,  whose  great  spirit 
was  duly  warmed  by  liquid  fires;  nor  yet  like  Lincoln, 
whose  sympathies  were  quite  mdependent  of  potable 
stimulation;  nor  like  Gladstone  or  Bismarck,  whose 
imaginations  dwelt  considerably  with  the  unseen 
powers.  Some  of  the  most  potent  leaders  of  men 
have  felt  themselves  to  be  interpreters  to  mankind 
of  the  celestial  intentions.  They  have  felt,  as  the 
Kaiser  does,  that  what  looked  right  to  them  was  the 
divme  will.  Mr.  Root  has  never  shown  signs  of 
possessing  an  assurance  of  that  sort.  His  strength 
has  lain  rather  in  a  comprehension  of  the  machinery 
of  modern  life;  of  business,  law,  government,  and  the 
minds  of  men,  and  in  ability  to  perceive  what  was 
practicable  and  how  to  do  it.  His  mind  seems  almost 
the  antithesis  of  Mr.  Bryan's  mind.     Mr.  Bryan  has 

113 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  119 

vision — quite  a  lot  of  it — coupled  with  very  imperfect 
capacity  to  understand  and  operate  the  machinery 
by  which  dreams  come  true.  Mr.  Root  can  take 
anybody's  dream,  organize  it  and  put  anything  that 
is  good  in  it  on  the  road  to  arrival.  He  understands 
and  can  handle  machinery.  He  knows,  and  he  knows 
how.  This  is  an  age  of  mechanisms.  Mr.  Root  is  a 
great  chauffeur  of  government;  knows  the  machine, 
knows  the  road,  and  can  do  as  much  as  any  other  to 
get  you  where  you  want  to  go. 

Of  course  any  one  who  exhibits  Mr.  Root  as  a 
political  failure  has  got  confused  in  his  catalogue  and 
should  not  expect  any  large  receipts  of  gate  money. 
A  great  chauffeur  of  government  is  at  this  time  about 
as  valuable  an  asset  as  a  country  can  have.  We  have 
battalions  of  young  men  who  see  visions,  and  an 
ample  contingent  of  old  men  who  dream  dreams,  but 
people  who  know  the  road  and  understand  the  ma- 
chine are  scarce.  There  are  people  who  lay  it  up 
against  Mr.  Root  that  now  and  then  in  times  past 
he  has  carried  joy-riders  in  his  tonneau,  and  brought 
them  home  safer  and  more  comfortably  than  seemed 
consistent  with  their  deserts.  But  that  is  nothing 
against  his  abilities  as  a  chauffeur;  quite  the  contrary. 

This  is  no  time  to  be  printing  his  political  obituary. 
He  is  seventy  years  old,  in  excellent  health,  and  of  a 
practiced  skill.  Franklin  was  seventy  years  old  when 
he  served  on  the  committee  to  draw  up  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence.  His  greatest  services  to  the 
country  followed  that.  For  nearly  nine  years  he  was 
American  Ambassador  to  France.  He  came  home  at 
seventy-nine  and  afterwards  was  President  of  Penn- 
sylvania for  three  years  and  a  member  of  the 
convention  that  contrived  the  Constitution.  The 
job  immediately  ahead  of  Mr.  Root  is  to  assist  next 
summer  in  tinkering  the  Constitution  of  the  State 
of  New  York.    That  is  an  important  work,  but  the 


120  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

State  will  be  lucky  if  he  is  not  called  away  from  it  to 
duties  still  more  imperative.  For  nobody  can  tell 
whether  he  is  retiring,  or  emerging  into  the  period 
of  his  greatest  usefulness,  not  as  a  partisan,  not  even 
solely  as  an  American,  but  as  a  citizen  of  the  world 
and  a  servant  of  mankind. 

The  Sixty-third  Congress  has  done  its  work  and 
quit.  No  Congress  for  half  a  century  has  accom- 
plished so  much  important  legislation.  When  it  as- 
sembled it  was  full  of  green  and  wild-appearing  legis- 
lators, and  the  older  hands,  especially  the  Republi- 
cans, wondered  how  it  would  ever  manage  to  do  any 
business.  The  explanation  of  its  achievements  is  that 
it  v/as  well  led  and  well  driven,  and  possessed  with 
an  instinct  of  self-preservation  that  enabled  it  to 
stand  discipline.  The  lion's  share  of  credit  for  what 
it  did  belongs  to  President  Wilson,  who  kept  it  at  its 
task  with  such  astonishing  pertinacity,  but  it  is  a 
credit  shared  by  Mr.  Underwood,  Mr.  Clark,  Mr. 
Bryan,  and  various  other  gentlemen,  and  in  which 
the  Congress  itself,  by  and  large,  must  not  be  denied 
participation. 

The  credit  for  some  things  it  did  not  do  and  for 
modifications  and  improvements  in  its  doing,  and  for 
assistance  in  some  good  acts  that  would  have  failed 
without  it,  belongs  to  Mr.  Root  and  other  Republi- 
cans. They  helped  the  President  invaluably  in  the 
Canal  tolls  repeal  bill,  and  helped  or  hindered  the 
Democrats  very  usefully  indeed  as  critics  and  sifters 
of  other  legislation. 

No  Congress  has  ever  been  so  hard  worked  as  the 
Sixty-third.  It  sweated  through  two  successive 
Washington  summers,  hard  driven  nearly  all  the 
time.  Its  survivors  must  feel  as  though  they  had 
been  through  a  war,  and  if  any  of  them  need  pen- 
sions they  ought  to  have  them. 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  121 

Two  eminent  British  statesmen,  Lord  Bryce  and 
Mr.  H.  G.  Wells,  have  been  speaking  kindly  of  us. 
Lord  Bryce  explained  the  obligations  of  our  govern- 
ment to  uphold  its  neutrality  and  to  remonstrate 
when  the  trading  rights  of  our  citizens  seemed  to  be 
more  abraded  than  is  warranted  by  previous  con- 
ceptions of  international  law.  He  counselled  his 
fellow-citizens  to  go  easy  in  their  complaints  about 
us. 

Mr.  Wells  said  (in  the  New  York  Times)  that  our 
modest  country  has  surprised  the  world.  When  the 
war  came,  he  says,  "what  we  feared  most  in  the 
United  States  was  levity,  excitement,  fluctuations  of 
opinion,  irresponsibility,  and  possibly  mischievous 
interventions."  What  he  discovered  was  "a  very 
clear,  strong  national  mentality,  a  firm,  self-con- 
trolled, collective  will,  far  more  considerable  in  its 
totality  than  the  world  has  ever  seen  before." 

It  looks  as  if  this  issue  of  Life  might  find  Constan- 
tinople in  the  Allies'  hands.  It  is  four  hundred  and 
sixty-two  years  since  it  fell  to  the  Turks,  and  its 
recovery  will  be  one  of  the  facts  accomplished  that 
will  make  1915  one  of  the  large-type  dates  in  the 
history  books.  Gradually  the  leading  necessaries 
of  this  war  are  being  attained.  The  main  job  is  to 
nick  the  theory  of  blood  and  iron  supremacy  so  deep 
that  it  will  stay  nicked,  and  that  is  a  tremendous  task. 
But  it  will  be  done.  It  is  going  to  be  demonstrated 
that  development  of  a  nation  of  soldiers  for  purposes 
of  world-burglary,  the  ravishment  of  Belgium,  and 
the  great  system  of  lies,  spies,  and  international 
bad  faith  is  all  based  on  mistaken  calculation  and  an 
error  in  politics. 


March  18, 1915. 

MOST  of  the  obituary  notices  of  the  Sixty- 
third  Congress  ran  on  into  summaries  and 
reviews  of  the  first  half  term  of  President 
Wilson's  administration.  Making  allowances  for  the 
snorts  of  Republican  papers  that  have  to  adduce 
Two  Years  some  reasons  for  a  change,  the  notices 
of  Wilson  were  not  so  bad.  No  one  who  wants  to 
speak  handsomely  of  President  Wilson  has  far  to 
seek  for  a  basis  for  his  remarks,  and  when  said  they 
sound  better  and  carry  more  conviction  than  most  of 
the  unhandsome  things  said  of  him. 

We  need  to  recall  now  and  then  what  he  is  trying 
to  do  and  what  he  has  to  contend  with.  He  is  trying 
to  arrest  or  restrict  the  control  of  human  life  in  this 
country  by  too  few  people  who  have  acquired  too 
much  power.  Almost  any  intelligent,  observant  per- 
son will  agree  that  this  desired  restriction  of  the  power 
of  property  and  business  has  come  to  be  necessary. 
Organization,  stimulated  and  extended  by  all  the 
mechanical  inventions,  has  made  life  a  new  problem, 
and  one  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  work  out.  Mr. 
Wilson  is  trying  to  do  his  share  of  the  work  of  solv- 
ing it,  and  the  Democrats,  in  the  main,  are  with 
him. 

Plenty  of  people  realize  the  need  of  limiting  the 
power  of  property  so  long  as  the  idea  is  general  and 
the  property  affected  belongs  to  some  one  else.  But 
when  the  idea  becomes  concrete,  and  especially  when 
some  of  the  property  belongs  to  themselves,  the  idea 
of  limiting  its  powers  begins  to  look  "visionary." 
The  Republican  party,  if  it  stands  for  anything  just 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  12S 

now,  stands  for  the  protection  of  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  property.  It  may  admit — probably 
would — that  business  needs  watching,  and  perhaps 
even  regulation,  but  it  does  not  want  it  to  be  watched 
or  regulated  to  its  detriment  by  anybody,  nor  by 
Democrats,  even  to  its  good. 

So  Mr.  Wilson  and  the  Democrats  in  their  efforts 
are  up  against  a  great  deal  of  property  and  the  votes 
and  newspapers  that  represent  it.  And  they  are  also 
up  against  loyalty  to  the  existing  order.  This  loyalty 
of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  citizens  to  existing  order 
is  almost  the  same  as  loyalty  to  a  king  or  a  kaiser. 
In  some  persons  it  is  a  policy  based  consciously  on 
self-interest,  but  in  lots  of  others  it  is  a  sentiment. 
The  main  thing  a  king  represents  is  the  established 
order.  Good  people  have  often  stuck  to  bad  kings 
for  no  better  reason  than  that  what  they  were  used 
to  seemed  right  to  them.  And  for  the  same  reason 
they  will  stick  to  bad  practices  in  railroads,  trusts, 
public  utility  companies  and  banking  combinations, 
bad  habits  of  business  and  bad  laws.  They  are 
honest  people  and  they  hate  to  see  anybody's  be- 
longings, no  matter  how  acquired,  taken  away  from 
them.  Their  instinct  of  fidelity  prompts  them  just 
as  surely  to  side  with  the  New  York  Central  in  New 
York  or  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  in  Pennsylvania 
as  the  same  instinct  prompted  the  Jacobites  to  side 
with  the  Stuarts. 

Honest  people  of  this  sort  are  what  give  stability 
to  political  institutions.  The  Jacobin  temperament 
is  useful  when  things  have  got  so  bad  that  they  are 
due  to  blow  up,  but  when  you  have  a  going  machine 
that  only  needs  tinkering,  the  Jacobite,  hold-fast 
temperament  has  its  abundant  value. 

Mr.  Wilson  has  enough  Jacobin  in  him  for  present 
political  necessities,  but  he  also  has  a  substantial 
infusion  of  hold-fast.     He  does  not  mean  to  destroy 


124  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

the  existing  order.  He  wants  to  save  it  by  a  neces- 
sary medication.  It  is  certain  that  he  will  make  mis- 
takes and  likely  that  he  will  make  blunders,  but  there 
is  a  better  quality  of  political  hope  in  him  than  in 
any  one  else  at  present  visible  in  either  party.  We 
had  to  put  the  Democrats  in  power,  because  the 
Republicans  did  not  have  it  in  them  to  do  what  the 
country  needed.  Mr.  Wilson  was  far  and  away  the 
best  visible  Democrat  to  be  President.  He  has  done 
some  wonderfully  good  things,  and  he  is  likely  to  do 
more.  He  has  in  him  the  capacity  to  do  them.  If  he 
has  also  in  him  the  capacity  to  get  in  wrong  on  occa- 
sion, that  is  to  be  expected  and  is  no  more  than  the 
legitimate  cost  of  having  him  for  President.  In  the 
end  he  ought  to  get  with  him  his  full  share  of  the 
honest  people  who  are  loyal  to  existing  order  and 
don't  want  anybody  to  lose  property  except  by  due 
process  of  just  laws. 

The  debate  between  our  government  and  the 
governments  of  Germany  and  England  about  the 
relative  proprieties  and  validities  of  submarine  and 
surface  blockades  proceeds  with  politeness,  but  except 
from  persons  directly  interested  in  shipping,  receives 
less  attention  at  this  writing  than  the  proceedings  in 
the  Dardanelles.  The  desire  of  the  Germans  to 
stock  up  with  food  is  quite  to  be  expected  from  per- 
sons of  their  healthy,  normal  appetites.  They  are 
surely  entitled  to  discuss  the  ways  and  means  of 
doing  it,  and  the  courteous  attention  their  arguments 
receive  from  our  government  is  no  more  than  ought 
to  be.  Their  assurance  that  American  food  shall 
only  be  used  for  their  civil  population  does  not  seem 
important,  because  (a)  the  importance  of  any  Ger- 
man assurance  has  been  prejudiced  by  occurrences 
since  the  first  of  last  August,  and  (b)  because  food 
carried  into  Germany  increases  that  country's  total 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  125 

supply,  and  it  matters  nothing  whether  soldiers  and 
civilians  are  helped  out  of  the  same  bin  or  supplied 
from  different  compartments. 

So  also  the  desire  of  the  British  to  end  the  war,  and 
especially  their  so  positive  aspiration  to  throw  the 
Germans  out  of  Belgium  and  France,  must  command 
our  respect,  and  if  they  think  it  can  be  done  quicker 
by  shutting  off  all  supplies  from  Germany,  that  opin- 
ion is  certainly  entitled  to  the  attentive  consideration 
our  government  has  been  giving  it. 

But  these  blockade  matters  are  all  sea-lawyer's 
questions  to  which  the  laity  give  but  a  languid  atten- 
tion, though  appreciative  of  the  importance  of  keep- 
ing the  record  straight  against  a  possible  return  of  a 
time  when  international  questions  will  be  settled  by 
international  law.  What  ninety  per  cent,  of  us  are 
keen  about  is  that  the  domination  of  the  world  by 
the  German  Kultur,  linked  to  Krupps,  may  be 
averted;  that  the  surviving  remnant  of  the  Belgians 
shall  be  saved  alive;  that  the  unspeakable  "f rightful- 
ness" of  the  German  invasion  shall  be  damned  with 
an  unpopularity  that  will  last  a  thousand  years; 
that  the  Prussian  militaristocrats  shall  be  abated  and 
labelled  effectively  with  the  tag  that  belongs  on  them, 
and  that  a  maltreated  and  anguished  world  may  wan 
back  to  the  paths  of  peace  and  humane  civilization. 

If  the  Germans  think  they  can  avoid  or  delay  this 
desirable  consummation  by  blockading  the  British 
Isles  with  submarines,  they  w^ill  do  it,  of  course,  in  so 
far  as'they  are  able  to.  If  the  English  think  they  can 
hasten  it  by  proclaiming  a  blockade  of  Germany 
which  they  cannot  make  a  fact,  of  course  they  will  do 
that.  If  our  government  feels  that  such  blockades  are  a 
deleterious  invasion  of  the  rights  of  neutrals,  of  course 
it  is  bound  to  say  so  and  to  reiterate  the  opinion  at 
convenient  intervals.  Everybody  surely  will  try  to 
oblige  our  government,  if  not  immediately,  then  as 


126  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

soon  as  is  reasonably  practicable;  but  as  long  as  the 
talking  forces  and  the  fighting  forces  are  distinct, 
there  will  be  fighting,  no  doubt,  as  usual,  ashore, 
asky,  afloat  and  submerged,  and  the  usual  adventur- 
ing of  cargoes  across  the  main. 


April  8, 1915, 

THE  London  Nation  declares  that  "Mr. 
Hoover's  American  Commission  for  the  feed- 
ing of  the  starving  Belgians"  has  done  "a 
miracle  of  diplomacy"  in  obtaining  and  distributing 
its  supplies.  Brand  Whitlock  and  a  good  many 
Mr  Hoover  others  have  shared  in  that  nuracle  and  will 
the  Rescue  *  come  in  if  there  should  be  sometime  an 
Specialist      adjustment  of  credit. 

There  seem  to  have  been  extraordinarily  good 
American  men  on  this  job  of  feeding  the  Belgians. 
That  the  Rockefeller  Foundation's  men  should  be 
intelligent  and  efficient  was  to  be  expected,  but  that 
a  man  with  such  a  spirit  inside  of  him  and  such  a 
human  experience  as  Mr.  Whitlock  should  have  been 
appointed  minister  to  Belgium  was  a  wonderful  piece 
of  luck,  or  perhaps  a  political  Providence. 

And  as  for  Mr.  Hoover,  how  did  he  happen.'^  \\Tien 
the  war  suddenly  exploded  one  began  to  read  of  the 
activities  in  London  of  an  American  named  Hoover, 
a  business  man  full  of  business,  and  considerably  full 
of  money,  who  got  right  in  and  took  hold  of  the  work 
of  salvaging  distressed  tourists,  finding  money  for 
them,  and  getting  them  home.  It  has  not  been  pos- 
sible since  that  time  to  intrude  far  into  salvage  activi- 
ties without  running  into  this  Mr.  Hoover.  His  per- 
formance has  been  like  that  of  a  man  in  a  play  who 
transpires,  say,  from  L.  U,  E.  at  the  critical  moment 
and  straightens  out  the  situation  that  w^as  as  good  as 
lost.  Mr.  Hoover,  however,  seems  to  belong  to  real 
life.  One  reads  from  "Wio's  T\Tio"  that  he  is  an 
engineer,  mining  and  assorted,  forty  years  old,  born  in 

127 


128  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

Iowa,  a  graduate  (and  trustee)  of  Leland  Stanford 
University,  a  resident  of  London,  with  offices  in 
New  York  and  San  Francisco,  a  director  of  a  line  of 
mining  companies,  most  of  them  operating  in  China, 
and  of  a  number  of  engineers'  societies  in  England, 
France,  and  Belgium. 

Mr.  Hoover,  it  would  seem,  will  emerge  from  the 
war  with  a  large  advertisement  as  a  handy  man  in 
social  service.  That  is  a  serious  prospect  for  a  mining 
specialist  only  forty  years  old.  People  who  are 
known  to  be  efficiently  helpful  in  the  work  of  looking 
after  other  folks  are  liable  to  be  drafted  for  that  em- 
ployment. 


April  15,  1915. 

A  NY  reliable  sage  will  assure  enquirers  that  the 
/A  use  of  misfortune  is  to  discipline  and  instruct 
-^  -^  us.  When  we  have  a  misfortune,  therefore, 
we  ought  not  to  waste  any  of  it,  but  should  practise, 
by  close  attention  to  its  incidents  and  results,  to  get 
Josephus  as  much  forwarder  as  possible  in  the  paths  of 
Daniels    wisdom  and  peace. 

We  should  not  lose  any  opportunity  to  improve 
ourselves  in  this  fashion  by  paying  close  attention  to 
Josephus  Daniels  while  he  continues  to  be  Secretary 
of  the  Navy.  There  is  a  large  preponderance  of  sen- 
timent that  it  is  a  misfortune  that  Josephus  should  be 
boss — or,  as  he  prefers  to  say,  head-master — of  the 
navy.  Let  us  make  this  trouble  useful  to  us.  Let  us 
study  Josephus  carefully,  try  to  find  out  what  is  the 
so  very  particular  thing  that  ails  him,  and  what  the 
consequences  of  it  are,  that  we  may  be  consoled  by 
advance  in  knowledge  for  what  he  costs  us,  and  be 
the  better  qualified  if  we  should  be  called  to  be  Presi- 
dent not  to  pick  any  such  person  for  that  office. 

The  latest  consequence  of  Josephus  is  that  Rear 
Admiral  Bradley  A.  Fiske  has  begged  the  head- 
master to  excuse  him  from  being  any  longer  Aid  for 
Operations  of  the  Navy  Department.  Admiral  Fiske 
did  not  say  why  he  wished  to  be  excused,  and  it  is  a 
permissible  hypothesis  that  his  grandmother  is  ill. 
But  the  general  supposition  is  that  he  wants  to  get 
out  because  he  knows  about  navies,  and  what  ought 
to  be  done  about  ours,  and  Josephus  has  different 
views  and  blocks  the  way  to  doing  what  his  Aid  for 
Operations  tliinks  is  necessary. 

129 


130  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

Joseplius,  as  all  conscientious  observers  must  have 
noticed,  has  very  positive  views  and  the  confidence 
of  them.  He  has  been  defined  by  high  authority  as  a 
man  who  knows  nothing  and  is  sure  of  it.  He  is  con- 
firmed just  now  in  his  certainties  by  the  news  that 
the  King  of  England  has  given  up  drink  until  the  war 
is  over.  Admiral  Fiske  is  nothing  but  a  common 
naval  expert  without  views  on  great  moral,  dietetic, 
or  political  questions,  and  Josephus,  being  noto- 
riously good-natured,  will  doubtless  spare  him  gladly 
and  run  the  navy  himself  on  the  lines  he  learned  at 
Raleigh.  But  it  is  our  navy,  and  we  must  watch 
him.  We  may  need  a  navy  some  time,  and,  in  view 
of  that  possibility,  it  may  become  our  duty  any 
minute  to  give  the  President  all  the  help  we  possibly 
can  in  getting  rid  of  Josephus  Daniels. 

The  great  current  slogan  against  rum  is  that  it  is 
the  enemy  of  efficiency.  But  is  it  possible  to  con- 
gratulate the  President  on  the  efficiency  of  his  two 
teetotal  Secretaries.^  Curious  to  say,  they  are  the 
least  efficient  members  of  his  Cabinet.  If  the  argu- 
ment for  efficiency  rested  on  them,  it  would  fall  all 
in  a  heap. 

To  our  mind,  Josephus  is  the  heaviest  load  the 
Wilson  administration  has  to  carry.  Mr.  Bryan 
may  be  burdensome,  but  he  is  probably  worth  his 
weight.  Our  foreign  affairs  are  being  very  well  con- 
ducted. People  blame  President  Wilson  for  what  he 
has  done  about  Mexico  and  what  is  going  on  there, 
but  we  must  never  forget  that  the  best  cook  in  the 
world  cannot  make  a  satisfactory  omelet  out  of  bad 
eggs. 

But  Josephus  is  a  great  affliction  and  one  that  has 
no  visible  compensations  except  in  so  far  as  it  is  good 
for  us  to  suffer.  The  officers  of  the  navy  are  in  the 
main  men  of  high  character,  able,  devoted,  and  self- 
respecting.     To  have  them  subjected  to  the  whims 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  131 

of  this  ignorant  and  unterrified  Tar-heel  is  truly 
exasperating.  Nobody  has  ever  been  able  to  ac- 
count for  the  inclusion  of  Daniels  in  the  Cabinet. 
He  is  not  important  politically  or  personally.  It  is 
inconceivable  that  he  should  be  acceptable  to  the 
President.  But  for  some  reason  unknown  the  place 
was  offered  him,  and  it  is  as  hard  to  turn  him  out  of 
it  as  it  was  for  Taft  to  get  rid  of  Ballinger.  Our 
President  in  this  case  is  Sinbad,  and  the  legs  of  the 
Old  Man  of  the  Sea  are  locked  about  his  neck. 

Dr.  Dernburg,  the  German  apologist,  thinks  that 
too  much  fuss  has  been  made  about  the  sinking  of 
the  Falaha  by  a  German  submarine,  and  the  other 
like  attacks  on  merchantmen,  with  resulting  loss  of 
lives  of  non-combatants.  It  seems  shocking  to  sink 
a  merchant  ship  with  over  a  hundred  assorted  pas- 
sengers aboard,  and  such  things  have  not  been  used  to 
be  done  in  modern  wars.  But  m  this  war  there  are 
novelties.  The  submarine  is  a  novelty,  and  the 
New  German,  bred  and  taught  since  1870,  is  a 
novelty.  It  will  save  trouble  to  accept  Dr.  Dern- 
burg's  position  that  nothing  that  either  of  these 
novelties  can  do,  under  any  circumstances,  is  prop- 
erly subject  to  adverse  criticism.  They  are  both 
out  to  do  all  the  harm  they  can  to  any  enemy  they 
can  reach.  To  criticize  them  for  violating  old  rules 
of  war  is  a  mere  waste  of  time.  Their  purpose  is  to 
kill,  rob,  and  destroy  what  they  can,  and  the  only 
visible  cure  for  that  intention  is  to  kill  as  many  fight- 
ing Germans  as  possible.  There  is  no  sign  that  any- 
thing will  end  the  war  except  dead  Germans. 

Of  course  that  is  a  sad  prospect,  and  the  sadder 
because  to  realize  it  will  cost  not  only  so  many  lives  of 
New  Germans,  but  so  many  that  are  not  of  the  New 
German  species  and  are  not  ailing  with  the  terrible 
New  German  disease.     But  there  doesn't  seem  to  be 


132  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

any  other  way  out,  and  though  the  Allies  have 
doubtless  every  disposition  to  do  their  job  with  the 
utmost  economy,  it  is  not  one  in  which  economical 
methods  seem  likely  to  be  effective.  For  what  peo- 
ple must  have  they  pay  the  price,  if  they  have  got  it. 
The  Allies  feel  that  they  must  have  a  lasting  peace 
and  freedom  in  Europe,  and  that  those  blessings  can 
only  be  regained  by  eradicating  the  New  German  dis- 
ease at  any  cost. 

So  there  is  no  use  of  squirming  more  than  one  must 
when  the  New  Germans  drown  or  otherwise  destroy 
non-combatants.  Such  deportment  is  one  of  the 
symptoms  of  their  ailment  and  will  go  on  until  they 
are  cured.  Meanwhile,  we  must  preserve  our  souls 
in  such  patience  as  we  may,  and  do  what  good  we 
can,  and  pretend  to  ourselves  that  this  year  it  is  the 
fashion  in  Europe  to  die. 


April  22,  1915, 

IT  IS  a  strange  war.  It  is  so  serious !  " These  are 
days  of  great  perplexity,"  said  President  Wilson 
to  the  Methodists,  "when  ...  it  seems  as 
if  great  blind  material  forces  had  been  released  which 
had  for  long  been  held  in  leash  and  restraint.  And 
„    „   .        yet,  underneath  that,  you  can  see  the  strong 

So  Serious    .  i  j.  .    •  i      i     j> 

impulses  oi  great  ideals. 

To  be  sure!  It  seems  like  a  war  of  religions;  and 
so,  no  doubt,  it  is,  of  rehgions  alike  in  profession,  but 
antagonistic  in  practice.  One  reads  details  of  Ger- 
man conduct  that  make  one  feel  that  there  are  not 
enough  Germans  dead  or  alive  for  the  purposes  of 
expiation.  Again,  one  reads  details  of  German  devo- 
tion, fidehty,  and  sometimes  of  humanity  and  sweet- 
ness that  make  you  feel,  "Blessed  are  the  dead  who 
die  in  the  Lord."  There  are  many,  many  excellent 
Germans  dying  for  something,  and  doing  it  with 
alacrity  and  absolute  consecration.  The  same  is 
true  of  a  iot  of  Frenchmen  and  Belgians,  a  lot  of  Eng- 
lishmen and  a  raft  of  Russians.  Perhaps  one  reason 
Italy  finds  it  so  hard  to  come  into  the  war  is  that  she 
cannot  raise  her  consecration  to  the  current  level. 
Life  seems  to  have  come  to  be  altogether  a  secondary 
matter  to  these  contestants. 

Out  of  so  much  good  dying  a  great  deal  of  good 
ought  in  time  to  come.  Perhaps  one  result  will  be  a 
general  swap  of  cultures.  Everybody  engaged  has 
been  learning  the  art  of  war  from  the  Germans,  and 
incidentally  the  German  system  of  getting  ready  be- 
forehand and  starting  when  the  whistle  blows.  The 
immense  effort  to   thrash    Germanv   seems   to   be 

133 


134  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

Germanizing  Europe  in  the  details  of  organization 
and  government  control  much  faster  and  better 
than  Germany  could  have  hoped  to  do  it  by  uni- 
versal conquest.  When  you  have  to  imitate  a  man 
in  order  to  beat  him  you  are  apt  to  get  a  lasting 
lesson. 

And  the  Germans  must  be  learning,  too.  It  does 
not  show  yet;  there  is  hardly  a  sign  of  it.  But  the 
subconscious  German  mind  must  be  recording  such 
facts  as  that  the  Prussians  do  not  know  all  that  is 
knowable  about  the  management  of  empires;  that 
the  Germans  are  not  the  only  worth-while  people  on 
the  earth,  and  that  militarism  has  unsuspected  de- 
fects as  a  protective  policy.  None  of  these  acces- 
sions to  the  sum  of  German  knowledge  has  begun 
to  be  operative  yet.  They  are  still  eating  their 
way  into  the  subconscious  receptacles  of  German 
thought,  but  one  may  hope  with  considerable  con- 
fidence of  expectation  that  in  due  time  they  will 
climb  up  into  the  German  head  and  manifest  their 
presence. 

Our  domestic  concerns  intrude  upon  attention,  but 
only  get  scant  measure  of  it.  Wall  Street  has  been 
doing  business  again.  Somehow  people  have  con- 
cluded that  American  stocks  will  still  be  valuable  no 
matter  what,  and  have  been  buying  them  with  a  good 
appetite  in  rising  markets.  Nobody  seems  harsh 
enough  to  grudge  the  stock  brokers  tliis  relief.  The 
internment  of  their  business  for  four  or  ^ve  months, 
followed  by  sluggish  markets,  had  made  them  seem 
almost  as  worthy  as  the  Belgians. 

The  Uplift  in  Wisconsin  seems  to  be  standing  on 
its  head.  It  was  not  kind  to  sinners  when  it  had  the 
right  of  way,  and  now  some  of  them  have  elbowed 
their  way  back  into  office  and  are  inclined  to  be 
harsh.     It  does  not  do  in  politics  to  disfigure  sinners 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  135 

too  much,  even  in  pitching  them  out  for  the  people's 
good.  WTien  they  get  back  they  are  apt  to  be  incon- 
siderate. If  the  Wisconsin  Uph'ft  will  just  watch 
w^hat  happens  to  the  German  Uplift  in  Belgium  they 
will  understand  all  about  it. 


April  29,  1915. 

DR.  DERNBURG'S  letter  to  the  Portland  mass 
meeting  has  been  read  with  interest  by 
many  friends.  It  is  understood  to  be  a  feeler 
for  peace,  and  as  such  has  been  kindly  and  hospitably 
received  by  neutrals.  Its  suggestions  of  conditions 
Dernburg  Under  which  peace  might  be  acceptable  to 
Writes  a  Germany  are  doubtless  not  so  very  im- 
Letter  portant,  but  they  offer  details  for  discus- 
sion, and  have  been  profusely  discussed.  AYhat  is 
of  main  concern  is  that  here  is  an  intimation  that 
Germany  is  not  deriving  so  much  improvement  and 
satisfaction  from  the  so  salutary  and  glorious  exer- 
cises of  warfare  but  that  she  would  let  up  on  them  if 
it  could  be  made  graceful  for  her  to  do  so. 

The  good  doctor  intimates  that  the  idea  that  Ger- 
many wants  to  conquer  the  world — the  excellent 
Bernhardi's  "World-Power  or  Down-and-Out "  no- 
tion— is  all  nonsense.  To  do  Dr.  Dernburg  justice, 
we  guess  he  always  thought  so.  He  intimates  that 
Belgium  could  be  returned  to  the  Belgians  and  re- 
paired as  far  as  possible,  and  that  all  that  Germany 
would  want  would  be  the  status  quo  ante,  and  a  few 
rearrangements  that  v/ould  assure  her  that  she  could 
trade  anywhere  on  good  terms. 

Dr.  Murray  Butler  is  quoted  as  of  opinion  that 
Herr  Dernburg  did  not  dash  this  letter  off  on  his  own 
typewriter,  but  that  it  was  composed  by  some  one  of 
superior  diplomatic  gifts — Von  Biilow,  perhaps — 
and  transmitted  to  Dr.  Dernburg  to  divulge.  Who- 
ever wrote  it,  it  is  interesting  and  entitled  to  its 
place  in  the  great  war  file.     But  the  war  seems  not 

136 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  137 

threshed  out  yet.  Constantinople  is  not  taken,  the 
soil  of  Germany  has  hardly  been  scratched  by  the 
war  plough,  the  validity  of  "f rightfulness"  has 
not  been  debated  in  western  Prussia,  the  Prussian 
militarists — those  that  are  left — are  still  in  control 
of  Germany.  Germany  may  easily  get  better  terms 
when  thoroughly  thrashed  than  when  half  thrashed, 
since  not  until  there  are  plain  signs  that  the  nonsense 
has  been  pounded  out  of  her  will  her  neighbours  dare 
to  trust  her  with  the  power  for  future  mischief.  A 
Germany  cured  of  her  madness — of  trust  in  lies  and 
spies  and  Krupps,  of  robber  morals  and  slave-driver 
lusts,  and  pillage-hunger — would  not  find  it  hard  to 
get  fair  terms.  But  it  is  important  that  when  the 
war  does  end,  Germany  shall  realize  what  has  hap- 
pened to  her  and  why. 


May  6, 1915. 

ATA  dinner  of  young  men  in  New  York  last 
/a  month  one  said  to  his  companion  at  table: 
-^  ^  "Look  around  this  table.  I  am  willing  to 
bet  you  that  within  five  years  half  of  us  here  will 
be  killed  in  a  war  brought  on  by  our  feeble  foreign 
policy." 

A  Bet  at  That  was  an  idea  put  into  concrete  form  to 
Dinner  express  how  some  people  feel,  or  profess  to 
feel,  about  the  present  state  of  our  national  affairs. 
They  are  usually  persons  whose  political  hopes  in- 
volve a  change  in  administration  at  Washington. 
Such  persons,  especially,  think  our  navy  is  not  strong 
enough,  and  are  worried  because  of  our  lack  of  a 
reserve  of  trained  soldiers.  They  think  the  solicitude 
of  the  present  administration  to  avoid  every  chance 
of  war  anywhere  will  hurt  the  prestige  of  the  coun- 
try and  make  somebody  think  presently  that  w^e  are 
an  easy  mark,  and  that  our  national  convictions  in 
matters  of  policy  need  not  be  respected.  They  think 
we  should  have  taken  hold  harder  in  Mexico,  and 
should  have  taken  the  lead  nine  months  ago  in  uniting 
all  neutrals  in  a  protest  against  the  invasion  and 
destruction  of  Belgium.  They  are  willing  to  bet  that 
we  shall  get  our  dues  in  time,  and  will  pay  in  the  end 
a  heavier  bill  in  life  and  treasure  than  we  need  have 
paid  if  somebody  else  had  been  President  and  had 
done  differently. 

Perhaps  so;  but  for  our  humble  part,  we  do  not 
think  so.  And,  anyhow,  we  can't  help  it.  Our 
present  administration  has  nearly  two  years  more 
to  run,  and  we  could  not  escape  from  it  without  a 

138 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  139 

revolution.  It  behooves  us,  therefore,  to  sit  tight 
and  hope  on.  No  one  knows,  but  it  may  be  that  an 
official  remonstrance  about  Belgium  would  have  done 
some  good  if  all  neutrals  could  have  been  joined  in  it. 
But  to  say  that  is  to  say  that  if  some  one  else  had 
been  President  matters  would  have  gone  differently. 
Some  one  else  was  not  President.  It  is  the  President 
we  have  who  must  work  for  us,  and  it  is  for  his  needs 
and  omissions  that  we  are  responsible. 

The  country,  except  the  Fatherland,  the  Rev. 
Thomas  C.  Hall  and  Col.  Roosevelt,  seems  fairly 
well  satisfied  with  what  has  been  done  anent  Europe. 
As  to  Mexico,  what  has  been  and  is  now  going  on 
there  has  not  yet  come  to  be  a  political  issue  in  this 
country,  and  there  is  not  likely  to  be  one  so  long 
as  the  war  in  Europe  continues.  But  between  now 
and  the  time  next  year  wh.en  a  President  is  nominated, 
Mexico,  unless  it  straightens  out,  is  likely  to  be  a 
subject  of  urgent  discussion,  and  our  policy  there  may 
easily  become  a  Presidential  issue. 

Herr  Dernburg  speaks  to  us  so  freely  and  in- 
timately about  our  affairs  and  is  so  candid  in  telling 
us  what  is  for  our  good  and  warning  us  how  we 
may  get  hurt  if  we  don't  watch  out,  that  we  have 
quite  got  out  of  the  habit  of  thinking  of  him  as  a 
visitor,  and  if  he  should  decide  to  run  for  Congress 
it  would  seem  quite  natural.  He  was  not  satisfied 
that  his  letter  to  the  Portland  meeting  should  be 
described  as  a  feeler  for  peace,  and  came  out  in  the 
Sunday  papers  of  April  25th  with  voluminous  obser- 
vations on  that  subject.  He  took  us  so  far  into  his 
confidence  as  to  disclose  that  Germany  was  doing 
exceedingly  well  on  all  sides  of  the  war  and  had  no 
occasion  to  be  thinldng  of  peace  except  as  she  might 
attain  by  it  such  concessions  as  she  felt  to  be  neces- 
sary to  her  future  growth  and  welfare.  We  might  as 
well  make  up  our  minds,  he  thought,  that  the  Ger- 


140  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

mans  were  invincible  and  would  hold  all  of  France 
and  Belgium  that  they  were  now  possessed  of  unless 
they  got  attractive  offers  to  swap  these  holdings  for 
something  they  liked  better. 

Of  course,  in  these  remarks,  our  good  friend  took 
his  peace  discussion  out  of  meeting  and  deposited  it 
on  the  line  that  runs  between  the  Germans  and  the 
Allies  on  the  North  of  France.  That  seems  to  be 
where,  as  yet,  it  belongs.  If  the  Germans  are  in- 
vincible they  will  make  such  a  peace  as  suits  them 
when  they  get  ready.  If  they  can  be  beaten  they 
will  take  what  they  can  get  when  they  have  to. 

If  the  German  Empire  holds  together  it  will  be 
interesting  to  compare  the  reward  of  our  good  Dr. 
Dernburg  for  his  labours  with  us,  with  that  conferred 
on  Prince  Von  Bulow  for  his  efforts  to  swing  the 
Italians.  Von  Bulow  has  the  harder  job,  and  they 
say  he  has  worked  at  it  with  admirable  skill.  But  our 
Dernburg  has  worked  faithfully,  too,  and  when  it 
comes  to  getting  next  to  reading  matter  he  is  hard 
to  beat.  If  anything  he  could  say  would  have  in- 
fluenced American  opinion  in  this  country  he  would 
have  said  it,  but  so  far  he  seems  only  to  have  in- 
fluenced German  opinion  here.  He  is  Germany's 
ambassador  to  the  Germans  in  the  United  States. 

The  Germans  are  using  gas  bombs  on  the  line  in 
France,  and  there  is  some  disposition  to  discuss  the 
propriety  of  their  doing  so,  because  Germany,  and 
all  the  nations  now  at  war,  signed  a  Hague  agreement 
not  to  use  them. 

There  were  stories,  untrue  perhaps,  in  the  papers 
a  while  ago  about  French  experiments  in  the  war 
with  asphyxiating  bombs,  and  if  the  French  used 
them  the  Germans  can. 

But,  anyhow,  why  compliment  the  Germans  any 
further  by  discussing  the  propriety  of  the  details  of 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  141 

their  warfare?  They  abolished  propriety  once  for 
all  before  the  war  was  ten  days  old  in  Belgium. 
They  substituted  for  it — f rightfulness.  They  will 
do  anything,  anywhere,  that  seems  likely  to  promote 
their  ends.  What  they  do,  the  Cossacks  will  do  in 
turn  if  they  get  a  chance,  and  the  other  Allies  are 
likely  in  the  end  to  retaliate  as  far  as  their  superior 
civilization  permits.  It  is  a  superlatively  cruel  war. 
It  has  got  clean  away  from  all  discussion  of  proprieties 
or  details  of  any  sort. 


May  13, 1915, 

THERE  is  plenty  of  peace  talk,  but  no  other  prog- 
ress towards  it.  It  has  been  said  that  it  would 
not  be  so  very  difficult,  even  now,  to  get  the 
European  governments  to  agree  on  terms  of  peace  if 
they  dared,  but  that  in  every  country  concerned  the 
people  have  been  so  positively  assured  that  they 
were  certain  to  win  that  none  of  their  governments 
dare  face  them  with  anything  less  than  victory  to  offer. 
President  Eliot,  who  is  by  no  means  for  peace  at 
any  price,  can  suggest  terms  of  peace  that  would  be 
advantageous  to  every  one,  and  has  done  so.  It  can  be 
done  at  any  time.  Whenever  Germany  is  licked 
enough  there  can  be  peace.  She  has  received  great 
benefit  already.  She  is  much  sadder  and  some 
wiser.  She  still  fights  very  well,  with  big  guns, 
chemicals,  bluster,  torpedoes,  anything  she  can  pro- 
duce, and  keeps  pushing  her  obedient  Kanonenfiitter 
into  all  holes  that  are  made  in  her  lines,  so  that  it  is 
truly  a  terrible  job  to  give  her  a  full  course  of  treat- 
ment. But  while  a  good  half  the  news  nowadays  is 
of  German  successes,  they  do  not  get  her  ahead  any, 
and  the  war-sharps  whose  views  we  most  rely  on  find 
the  significant  advantages  increasingly  with  the  Allies. 
The  infernal  ding-dong  of  it  all  is  very  terrible. 
The  Germans,  at  this  writing,  have  managed  to 
torpedo  an  American  oil  ship  and  to  kill  some  of  the 
people  aboard  it,  and  there  will  have  to  be  settlement 
for  that,  and  there  may  be  complications  about  it. 
The  Germans  are  so  mad  at  us  now  that  they  may  want 
us  to  get  into  the  war  and  lose  some  money.  Or  they 
may  want  to  see  what  our  Germ  an- American  popula- 

142 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  143 

tion  would  do  in  such  a  case.  But,  after  all,  there  are 
good  reasons  why  it  would  pay  them  better  to  have 
us  remain  neutral,  and  neutral  we  are  likely  to  remain. 

We  have  need  to  look  back  now  and  then,  and 
recall  to  mind  with  what  aims  Germany,  after  her 
long  and  thorough  preparation,  started  this  war. 
She  was  out  to  crush  France  so  that  France  should 
never  again  be  an  obstacle  to  fulfillment  of  any  Ger- 
man ambition.  She  was  to  sting  Russia  so  that 
Russia  would  stay  at  home  and  mind  her  business 
for  a  generation  or  two  to  come.  She  was  to  have 
her  will  with  the  small  countries  and  reduce  them 
all  to  docility  and  obedience.  She  was  to  go  on 
building  warships  at  her  convenience  until  England 
presently  should  take  orders  from  her.  She  could 
have  done  it  all,  probably,  except  for  England,  and 
with  what  dreadful  emphasis,  with  what  lootings, 
and  pillage,  and  ransoms,  and  rapine,  and  assorted' 
"f rightfulness,"  we  loiow,  because  we  know  the  story 
of  Belgium.  From  these  incalculable  horrors,  these 
measures  taken  to  teach  mankind  "not  to  look 
askance  at  a  German,"  the  world  has  been  saved  at 
great  cost  of  life  and  treasure.  These  horrors  will 
not  happen  now.  Lives  by  the  hundred  thousand 
will  still,  no  doubt,  be  lost,  and  grief  and  want  will 
darken  many  lands,  but  the  German  monster  will 
not  strut  victorious  through  the  earth,  helping  him- 
self to  better  people's  homes  and  treasures. 

That  much  is  clear  now.  How  thoroughly  the 
Germans  are  to  be  drubbed  is  not  yet  disclosed,  but 
the  horrible  shadow  of  the  all-conquering,  all-looting 
German  is  no  longer  black  on  the  earth.  That  spectre 
is  laid  for  good.  France  will  still  be  France,  Belgium 
will  presently  again  be  Belgium,  however  scarred; 
Russia  will  be  a  better  Russia,  and  England,  let  us 
hope,  will  be  a  nobler  England  than  she  has  been  for 
generations. 


May  20, 1915. 

AS  Life  goes  to  press  the  only  intimation  of  the 
action  of  our  government  in  the  ease  of  the 
^  Liisitania  is  what  can  be  gleaned  from  the 
President's  remarks  to  some  newly  naturalized  citi- 
zens iu  Philadelphia.  Of  course  these  remarks  must 
The  not  be  taken  as  addressed  to  Germany,  or  as 

Lusitania  a  token  of  our  national  attitude.  The  Presi- 
dent said :  "  There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  man  being  too 
proud  to  fight.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  nation 
being  so  right  that  it  does  not  need  to  convince 
others  by  force  that  it  is  right." 

To  be  sure,  but  when  it  comes  to  fighting  outlaws 
we  are  not  too  proud.  We  are  just  as  humble  as 
anybody.  And  as  to  a  nation  being  so  right  that  it 
does  not  need  to  use  force,  that  seems  to  depend  on 
circumstances  and  on  the  state  of  mind  of  the  nation 
that  is  wrong.  There  is  no  sign  yet  that  with  Ger- 
many anything  but  force,  applied  or  prospective,  will 
have  the  least  effect. 

We  should  not  say  it  was  the  Germans  who  sunk 
the  Lusitania.  Germans  did  sink  her,  but  they  were 
men  acting  under  orders.  We  should  go  back  of 
them  to  the  source  of  their  activities. 

It  was  the  Kaiser  who  sank  that  ship  and  took 
those  lives.  It  is  he  that  stands  for  that  crime.  It 
is  he  and  his  divine  right  that  stands  for  this  war. 
He  and  that  element  in  Germany  that  has  linked  its 
fortunes  with  his  are  accountable  in  this  matter. 

We  must  not  forget  that.  We  must  not  forget  that 
this  war  of  wars  is  a  desperate  struggle  of  absolutism 
to  cripple  democracy;  a  war  of  force  to  cripple  free- 

144 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  145 

r 

dom;  a  war  of  f rightfulness  on  faith.  It  is  not  a  war 
of  the  German  people  on  anybody.  Their  bodies 
have  been  in  it,  but  not  their  minds.  Their  minds 
have  not  worked.  Their  wills  have  counted  for 
nothing  except  obedience.  It  is  a  war  of  the  German 
masters  on  all  free  peoples. 

Of  course  the  sinking  of  the  Liisitania  was  just 
more  "f rightfulness";  a  flash  of  terrorism  to  scare  us 
all  into  submission  to  the  Lords  of  Earth.  The 
German  masters,  it  seems,  cannot  be  satisfied  to 
leave  us  out  of  their  universal  discipline.  While 
they  are  subduing  the  world,  we  might  as  well  be 
included.  And  so  they  get  to  work  and  sink  our 
ships,  and,  contrary  to  all  known  rules  of  civilized 
warfare,  drown  our  defenseless  citizens  by  the  hun- 
dred on  an  unarmed  merchant  vessel. 

How  now,  brethren.^  What  are  we  going  to  do.^* 
We  have  been  defied  with  monstrous  outrages.  These 
German  masters  are  marshalling  their  poor  subjects 
with  aid  of  any  hellish  machine  that  contrivance  can 
perfect  to  destroy  every  principle  of  government, 
every  asset  of  civilization  that  we  value  or  respect. 
Nothing  holds  them.  Law,  custom,  treaties,  morals 
are  all  straw  to  them.  Fear  they  understand,  for 
they  have  known  it;  force  they  understand,  for  they 
have  used  it,  and  it  has  been  used  on  them.  By  fear 
and  force  they  think  to  have  their  way  with  us  and 
all  the  world  besides. 

Well,  brethren,  shall  tliev  have  it.^^ 

A  gentleman  who  went  to  France  last  month  wrote 
this  letter,  which  he  addressed  to  the  President: 

'^On  April — I  am  sailing  with  my  family  for  Bordeaux  on  a 
French  ship. 

In  case  the  boat  is  torpedoed  by  the  Germans  I  request  that 
you  will  make  a  protest.  I  do  not  ask  you  to  inaugurate  quiet 
and  friendly  inquiries  or  negotiations  with  Germany  as  to  the 
rumours  of  my  death.     Indeed,  your  willingness  to  rely  on  quiet 


146  THE  DIAEY  OF  A  NATION 

negotiations  under  the  circumstances  of  the  Falaba  case  is  what 
causes  me  uneasiness  as  to  the  safety  of  my  family.  The  course 
that  you  have  taken  in  that  case  has  made  travel  for  Americans 
not  more  safe,  but  much  more  unsafe;  and  should  the  American 
public  come  to  acquiesce  in  the  methods  of  the  Administration 
we  may  expect  wholesale  killing  of  Americans  by  the  Germans. 

I  ask  you,  in  case  of  my  death,  to  take  some  action  that  shall 
be  immediate  and  open,  and  which  shall  awaken  all  Americans 
to  the  fact  that  an  appeal  to  arms  may  be  needed  to  save  the  lives 
of  our  citizens — to  say  nothing  of  the  honour  of  our  nation. 

He  did  not  send  his  letter  to  the  President,  not 
being  satisfied  at  the  time  that  it  was  wise  to  do  so. 
x\nd  happily,  he  and  his  family  got  safely  across  to 
France.  But  in  the  gloom  of  the  sink^ig  of  the 
Lusitania  it  looks  like  a  good  letter  for  anybody  to 
read.  Certainly  we  all  feel  that  "quiet  and  friendly 
inquiries"  have  passed  their  usefulness.  When  the 
pacificent  Evening  Post  speaks  of  the  destroyers  of 
the  sunken  Cunarder  as  "wild  beasts  against  whom 
society  has  to  defend  itself  at  all  hazards,"  there  can 
hardly  remain  a  doubt  even  in  the  most  reluctant 
mind  that  "quiet  negotiations"  are  played  out,  and 
that  the  time  has  come  for  some  action  with  punch  in  it. 

For  our  part,  we  still  look  with  hope  for  such 
action  from  President  Wilson.  It  was  he  who  said 
the  other  day  in  a  public  address  that  if  a  really 
worthwhile  scrap  should  offer,  he  was  the  man  for  it. 
It  was  he  who  so  very  lately  served  formal  notice  on 
the  German  Government  that  "if  commanders  of 
German  vessels  of  war  .  .  .  should  destroy  on 
the  high  seas  an  American  vessel  or  the  lives  of 
American  citizens,  .  .  .  the  government  of  the 
United  States  would  be  constrained  to  hold  the  Im- 
perial German  Government  to  a  strict  accounta- 
bility .  .  .  and  take  any  steps  it  might  be 
necessary  to  take  to  safeguard  American  lives  and 
property."  These  words,  of  course,  gave  universal 
satisfaction  to  the  people  of  this  country.    They  are 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  147 

in  the  record,  and  Mr.  Wilson  may  surely  be  trusted 
to  make  every  letter  of  them  good.  Of  all  the  lives 
that  have  been  poured  out  in  the  great  war,  none, 
we  are  confident,  will  prove  to  have  been  expended 
to  more  fruitful  purpose  than  those  of  the  six  score 
Americans  who  died  when  the  Litsitania  went  down. 

The  Titanic  loss  was  fifteen  hundred  and  three 
lives.  Estimates  at  this  writing  make  the  loss  by 
the  Lusitania  one  or  two  hundred  less.  But  the 
main  difiPerence  is  that  one  was  accident,  the  other 
murder;  "a  deed" — to  quote  the  Evening  Post  again 
— "for  which  a  Hun  would  blush, a  Turk  be  ashamed, 
and  a  Barbary  pirate  apologize." 

This  is  the  greatest  disaster  that  has  befallen  the 
German  arms  since  the  retreat  from  Paris  last  Sep- 
tember. Not  one  of  those  thirteen  hundred  lives — 
not  a  baby,  not  a  woman,  not  a  stoker  nor  a  million- 
aire— will  be  wasted.  It  is  sad  about  them,  but  at 
least  these  non-combatants — and  especially  the 
forty  babies — have  done  a  feat  of  great  military  value. 
By  their  death  they  have  shocked  the  moral  sense  of 
a  nation  that  needed  a  shock  of  terrific  penetration 
to  jolt  it  into  action.  Those  torpedoes  got  to  the 
quick  of  our  hesitant  country.  Of  course  we  are  not 
afraid.  We  slattern  along  in  a  state  of  vociferous 
neglect  of  preparation,  and  then  always  we  are  like 
President  Wilson  in  that  if  there  offers  a  really  worth- 
while scrap,  we  are  for  it. 

No  doubt  that  is  the  wav  with  most  countries, 
but  it  is  not  what  Europe  thinks  of  us.  An  American 
writes  from  Paris : 

The  general  European  opinion  of  the  United  States  is  that  we 
have  no  thought  beyond  a  dollar.  Their  people  come  to  America 
and  do  not  get  beyond  Wall  Street  and  the  Chicago  pork  packer- 
ies,  and  they  do  not  realize  that  there  is  no  civilized  nation  where 
wealth  has  less  political  influence.  Neither  do  they  understand 
that  we  are  a  sentimental  people  and  full  of  idealism. 


148  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

The  Europeans  in  these  days  are  finding  out  a  good 
many  things  about  themselves  and  one  another,  and 
it  will  be  all  in  the  day's  work  if  they  find  out  some- 
thing about  us.  Some  of  them  have  been  developing 
consciousness  that  they  have  souls,  and  if  we  develop 
a  discernible  soul  they  may  be  able  to  recognize  it. 
So  far  since  this  war  began  our  national  soul  has  not 
been  easily  discernible  from  a  distance.  But  it  has 
been  in  its  place  all  the  time.  The  great  American 
desire  has  been  not  dollars  at  all,  but  to  be  right. 


Mmj  ^7,  1915.  ^  _. .  /' 

A  GOOD  deal  of  the  delight  of  the  country  in  the 
President's  w'ot  t'  'ell  letter  to  the  Kaiser  was 
reaction  from  the  fear  that  he  wouldn't  do 
it.  The  one  fear  was  that  he  wouldn't  say  enough, 
or  say  it  hard  enough.  He  said  a-plenty,  and  said 
The  Presidenfs  it  with  an  admirable  skill  and  preci- 
Letter.  sion,  and  the  whole  country  was  satis- 

fied. It  knows,  too,  that  Mr.  Wilson  is  a  sticker, 
and  Mr.  Wilson  knows  that  the  country  is  behind 
him  as  solid  as  a  stone  wall,  and  asks  nothing  of  him 
except  not  to  let  the  Germans  fool  him. 

There  is  no  fear  at  this  writing  that  they  will. 
Evidences  abound  that  the  note  and  the  news  of 
American  sentiment  that  came  with  it  have  jolted 
some  new  ideas  into  the  German  Government.  A 
paper  that  takes  a  week  to  get  itself  printed  is  too 
slow  a  vehicle  to  keep  abreast  of  the  times  like  these, 
and  must  not  venture  to  forecast  what  the  Kaiser 
will  do,  but  there  is  a  feeling  that  what  he  does  will 
make  more  difference  in  detail  than  in  essence.  If  he 
drives  the  United  States  into  open  war  it  will  involve 
much  confusion  about  diplomatic  services  and  in- 
creased pains  to  European  sufferers  whom  we  are 
trying  to  help;  whereas,  if  we  stay  out,  we  shall  still 
be  powerful  aides  of  the  Allies  and  still  the  service- 
able go-between  of  all  the  warring  powers. 

No  doubt  there  is  still  left  in  Germany  the  capacity 
to  appreciate  that  on  the  day  these  States  went  into 
the  war  on  the  side  of  the  Allies  the  last  doubt  about 
the  final  outcome  of  the  war  would  disappear.  There 
are  people  who  suppose  that  because  our  army  is  so 

149 


150  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

little  and  our  navy  hardly  up  to  date,  we  could  not 
help  much.  But  that  is  a  mistake  that  no  informed 
European  would  make  for  a  minute.  We  make 
excellent  shells,  shrapnel,  and  powder,  and  can 
increase  our  product  of  these  combustibles  indefi- 
nitely; we  have  money,  credit,  food,  and  productive 
apparatuses  too  numerous  and  important  to  men- 
tion, and  we  could  turn  out  soldiers  in  a  compara- 
tively short  time.  Our  navy  also  would  be  im- 
mediately useful.  We  should  be  a  huge  asset  for  the 
side  we  were  on,  and  everybody  knows  it  who  knows 
anything.  For  that  reason  it  seems  unlikely  that 
we  shall  get  into  the  war.  And,  after  all,  it  is  not 
quite  our  war,  and  if  we  can  keep  out  of  it,  it  may  be 
better  in  the  long  run  for  all  the  world. 

Our  great  affair  is  to  serve  mankind  the  most  we 
can.  So  far  as  concerns  our  own  safety,  it  does  not 
matter  much  whether  we  join  the  war  against  Ger-' 
many  or  not.  If  anything,  we  are  safer  in  the  line 
with  the  Allies  than  outside.  Germany  as  a  world- 
terror  has  got  to  be  abated;  abated  for  us  as  well  as 
for  all  the  other  nations,  great  or  small.  In  any  case 
we  shall  do  our  share  in  the  abatement,  but  if  we  do 
it  directly  and  at  our  own  cost  our  position  will  be 
safer  when  the  job  has  been  done  than  if  we  do  it 
indirectly  and  at  the  cost  of  the  Allies. 

It  is  very  desirable  to  disabuse  the  European  mind 
of  the  idea  that  we  care  only  for  dollars  and  that  the 
war  interests  us  mainly  as  an  opportunity  to  do  busi- 
ness and  make  money.  President  Wilson's  letter 
has  done  much  to  clear  away  that  misapprehension. 
What  remains  of  it  will  be  dispersed  whenever  Ger- 
many declares  war  on  us. 

The  action  of  whoever  did  it  in  chucking  the 
Kaiser's  representative  effects  out  of  the  Chapel  of 
the  Garter  at  Windsor  was  very  suitable.     The  togs 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  151 

of  all  the  otiier  German  members  went  with  them, 
and  that  was  right,  too.  It  is  important  to  keep 
these  persons  permanently  out  of  society,  but  espe- 
cially the  Kaiser.  That  unfortunate  man  stands  be- 
fore mankind  smeared  with  ineffaceable  guilt.  He 
represents  officially  the  appalling  crimes  of  Germany. 
The  man  who  years  ago  told  his  troops  about  to 
sail  for  China  so  to  bear  themselves  as  to  be  remem- 
bered as  long  as  was  Attila  and  his  Huns — that  was 
the  man  and  that  the  mind  that  must  settle  for 
"f rightfulness"  in  Belgium  and  for  the  Lusitania. 
There  can  be  no  two  thoughts  about  that  man  and 
the  caste  of  Germans  that  he  stands  for,  and  who  are 
doubtless  worse  than  he.  They  are  murderers,  and 
those  of  them  who  survive  the  war  should  be  out- 
casts. The  Kaiser  and  Von  Tirpitz  must  feel  that 
they  are  fighting  with  ropes  around  their  necks. 
One  reads  of  Jane  Addams  and  her  voluminous  desire 
to  stop  the  war,  but  when  Miss  Addams  has  read  the 
Bryce  report,  one  may  surely  expect  to  hear  of  her  co- 
operation in  getting  up  an  international  rope-and- 
lamp-post  party  to  swing  off  the  whole  house  of 
Hohenzollern. 

Not  that  there  was  anything  new  in  the  Bryce 
report.  Open-minded  people  who  were  informed 
have  known  for  six  months  most  of  what  was  in  that 
report,  and  many  details  not  therein  included,  and 
have  been  well  aware  that  mere  fragments  of  a 
horrible  storv  were  all  that  had  reached  them,  but 
the  Bryce  report  convinced  a  great  many  who  had 
not  believed  before,  and  coming  especially  on  the 
heels  of  the  Lusitania  story,  it  could  not  be  doubted. 

Even  the  German  denials  of  it  hereabouts  were 
faint.  Viereck,  in  the  Fatherland,  felt  the  crushing 
need  to  say  it  was  not  so,  but  there  was  obvious 
perfunctoriness  in  his  denial,  and  evidences  of 
realization  that  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania  marked 


152  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

the  close  of  the  German  exculpators'  season  In  the 
United  States. 

They  are  all  done  now.  Von  Eernstorff  saw  the 
game  was  up,  and  went  very  sensibly  into  retreat. 
Dernburg  babbled  on  and  lost  what  reputation  for 
gumption  he  had  left,  and  used  up  the  last  shreds  of 
his  welcome;  the  Rev.  Thomas  Hall  gave  final  evi- 
dence of  his  amazing  obsession;  all  of  them  went 
down  together  with  the  forty  babies  on  the  Lusitania, 

Really,  the  stain  on  Germany  is  horrible.  There 
was  a  dinner  to  be  given  by  American  naval  officers 
to  the  officers  of  the  two  interned  German  warships. 
It  was  dropped  like  a  shot  when  the  Lusitania  sunk. 
These  officers  are  personally  innocent  of  that  crime, 
but  Von  Tirpitz  has  destroyed  the  honourable  stand- 
ing of  the  German  navy.  Men  who  take  his  orders 
can  no  longer  rank  as  gentlemen.  Happy  Richard, 
who  died  in  time,  and  did  not  live  to  see  to  what  a 
depth  of  infamous  repute  the  furor  teutonicus,  that  he 
warned  us  of,  has  brought  his  Germany. 


June  3, 1915. 

AS  WE  wait,  at  this  writing,  for  German3'''s 
/A  reply  to  our  President's  letter,  there  is  an 
-^  -^  appearance  that  Italy  has  leaked  into  the  war. 
For  ten  months  she  has  been  shivering  on  the  brink 
and  haggling  on  the  side.  She  finally  got  excellent 
Italy  offers  from  her  former  allies,  but  probably 
Gets  In  doubted  both  their  ability  to  make  a  good 
delivery  and  their  disposition  to  stand  by  their  bar- 
gain after  the  pinch  of  war  was  over.  For  months 
past  Italy  has  cut  rather  a  sordid  figure,  but  that  has 
been  a  good  deal  her  misfortune.  She  has  been  full 
of  opposed  and  wrangling  parties,  some  for  war, 
some  against  it.  She  goes  in  because  participa- 
tion in  the  actual  war  has  come  to  be  more  desired 
by  the  mass  of  her  people  than  the  costly  perch 
on  the  ragged  edge  which  she  has  so  long  been  oc- 
cupying. 

What  Italy  can  do  will  be  disclosed  suflSciently  soon 
by  events.  Nobody  seems  to  know  beforehand..  If 
she  gets  her  share  of  discipline,  that  may  be  impor- 
tant, especially  as  she  is  full  of  factions,  industrial, 
religious,  and  political,  that  need  shaking  together. 
And  that  she  is  in  the  war  means  also  that  another  of 
the  important  peoples  of  Europe  is  struggling  for 
peace.  W'hen  a  sufficiently  large  proportion  of  the 
population  of  the  earth  gets  to  fighting  sufficiently 
hard  for  peace,  no  doubt  peace  will  come.  The 
Swiss  and  the  Dutch  are  not  in  yet,  nor  the  Scan- 
dinavians, but,  of  course,  the  Rumanians  and  all  the 
rest  of  the  Balkan  peoples  may  get  in  any  minute. 
There  is  only  Spain  that  does  not  look  lilve  a  possible 

153 


154  THE  DIABY  OF  A  NATION 

participant.  Her  cheerful  young  king  must  feel 
lonely. 

More  interesting  than  Italy's  proceedings  are  the 
Northcliffe-Kitchener  and  Fisher-Churchill  rows  in 
England  and  the  reorganization  of  the  British  Cabi- 
net. Lord  Northcliffe  stands  for  government  by 
headlines.  We  all  know  the  breed.  Lord  Kitchener 
stands  for  government  by  orders.  The  theory  has 
been  that  government  by  headlines  was  not  adapted 
to  war  times,  and  since  last  August  the  British  War 
Department  has  been  supervising  editor  of  all  British 
newspapers,  including  Lord  Northcliffe's.  No  doubt 
this  has  been  a  trial  to  Northcliffe.  He  has  had  the 
gift  of  selling  periodicals.  He  has  been  a  good  judge 
of  vs^hat  various  groups  of  the  British  people  were 
willing  to  read,  and  an  expert  purveyor  to  them  of 
whatever  reading  they  would  buy.  He  has  had  re- 
markable judgment  and  discretion,  too,  in  the  selec- 
tion and  employment  of  writers  and  editors.  The 
use  of  these  abilities  has  brought  him  great  power. 
He  has  had  the  money  to  carry  out  his  plans,  and 
what  has  been  said  in  the  Times,  the  Mail,  and  his 
other  newspapers  and  periodicals  has  had  a  great 
effect  on  public  opinion,  and  often  on  government. 
Perhaps  Lord  Northcliffe  had  come  to  feel  that  he  was 
the  British  Government.  It  is  a  mistake  that  such 
men  are  liable  to  make.  They  imagine  they  are  the 
power  that  makes  things  happen,  when  the  truth 
is  they  are  only  the  news.  General  Kitchener  seems 
to  be  a  faithful  man,  v/ith  moderate  gifts,  obstinate 
tenacity,  and  great  power  of  work.  He  took  up  a 
huge  task  and  has  doubtless  made  plenty  of  mistakes 
in  the  doing  of  it.  But  British  opinion  so  far  is  back 
of  him,  and  against  Northcliffe. 

As  for  Fisher  and  Churchill,  Fisher  is  a  good  and 
able,  old-salt,  fighting  admiral,  and  Churchill  seems 
to  represent  the  combination  of  notable  abilities  with 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  155 

sporting  standards.  Sporting  standards  are  excellent 
in  subordinates,  but  somehow  do  not  stand  the  strain 
of  the  top  places. 

An  immense  reorganization  of  everything  is  going 
on  in  England.  The  strong  German  medicine  is 
purging  the  English  people.  They  seem  to  be  turn- 
ing to  authority,  and  as  between  the  British  and  the 
German  lash  they  may  prefer  their  own.  There  is 
the  German  organized  obedience  to  be  met,  and 
nothing  but  organized  obedience  can  meet  it. 

Our  people  seem  not  to  be  taking  very  seriously 
the  possibility  that  we  may  get  into  war  with  Ger- 
many. Folks  who  discuss  it  move  on  to  other  topics. 
The  general  sentiment  is  that,  whatever  befalls,  we 
are  too  far  away  to  be  hurt.  Canada  is  at  war 
with  Germany  and  is  not  uncomfortable,  though 
the  Canadian  losses  in  men  have  been  severe.  Here 
hardly  a  hand  has  lifted  to  prepare  for  a  possible  war, 
though  doubtless  some  thought  has  been  taken  by 
the  government.  But  there  is  consciousness  that 
our  present  state  of  military  and  naval  preparation, 
or  unpreparation,  is  not  safe  whether  we  become 
entangled  in  the  present  war  or  not,  and  that  there 
is  coming  either  a  great  change  in  the  world  or  a 
pronounced  change  in  our  habits.  The  temper 
of  average,  thoughtful,  pacific  Americans  appeared 
in  a  striking  fashion  at  the  annual  Lake  Mohonk 
Conference  during  the  third  week  in  May.  One  of 
the  aims  of  these  conferences  has  been  the  conserva- 
tion of  peace,  but  several  speakers  waked  up  the 
meeting  this  year  by  advocating  active  preparation 
against  the  possibility  of  war.  One  speaker  who  took 
this  view  was  President  Hibben  of  Princeton,  who 
declared  that  as  a  nation  we  "are  looking  into  a 
future  that  is  dark  and  mysterious,"  and  that,  though 
we  may  properly  make  great  sacrifices  for  peace,  if 
we  sacrifice  what  we  ought  not  to,  "the  peace  thus 


156  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

bought  becomes  for  us  the  veriest  torment  of  a  living 
hell." 

Never  in  the  twenty -one  years  of  its  existence,  says 
the  Evening  Post,  had  the  Lake  Mohonk  Conference 
heard  such  a  call  to  arms  as  it  had  from  President 
Hibben.  A  timely  call  it  was,  and  all  the  delegates 
took  notice. 


June  10, 1915. 

GERMANY  has  put  her  trust  in  mechanism 
and  means  to  sink  or  swim  with  it.  The 
Prussian  army  was  a  mechanism,  and  with 
the  help  of  Bismarck  it  took  possession  of  all  Ger- 
'many.  That  whole  country  has  been  mechanized. 
German  '  ^o,  to  be  sure,  has  all  the  Western  world, 
Trustin  which  uow  rcsts  on  a  basis  of  machinery. 
Mechanism  g^|.  Germany  is  the  leading  exponent  and 
victim  of  this  new  method  in  life.  Since  she  be- 
came Prussianized  she  has  made  steady  and  rapid 
progress  towards  becoming  a  perfect  machine  and 
past  mistress  of  all  things  mechanical.  She  hoped 
for  national  salvation — for  boundless  wealth,  bound- 
less power,  and  the  mastery  of  Earth — as  a  result 
of  making  the  best  use  of  the  most  efficient  machines. 
That  is  what  she  stands  for  just  now:  machines 
and  a  boundless  appetite  for  all  they  can  win  for 
her. 

Of  course  she  must  stick  up  for  her  submarines  in 
anything  they  do.  They  are  part  of  her  new  religion 
of  mechanisms.  The  leading  tenet  of  her  new  faith 
is:  Whatever  a  machine  can  be  made  to  do  is  right. 
Her  invading  army  was  a  machine.  For  nothing  that 
it  did  in  Belgium  or  northern  France  has  Germany 
shown  remorse.  Her  machine  can  do  no  wrong 
either  in  general  aims  or  in  details.  The  whole  duty 
of  a  machine  is  efficiency.     Nothing  else  matters. 

That  is  her  attitude  about  the  sinking  of  the 
Lusitania.  What  are  submarines  for  except  to  sink 
enemy  ships?  If  non-combatants  are  aboard  of 
them,  so  much  the  worse  for  non-combatants;  if 

157 


158  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

neutrals  are  aboard,  so  much  the  worse  for  neutrals. 
Whatever  happens,  a  German  machme  can  do  no 
wrong.  For  Germany  to  admit  the  contrary  is  to 
give  up  her  whole  case,  her  whole  ideal.  Her  sole 
reliance  is  on  force  and  mechanisms,  and  she  is 
bound  to  justify  them.  Everything  else  she  has 
let  go :  her  friends,  her  word,  her  honour,  her  civiliza- 
tion— they  are  all  laughing-stocks  or  subjects  for 
tears;  but  her  machines  are  good  and  she  is  bound  to 
stand  by  them. 

So  she  stands  by  her  military  machine  in  Belgium. 
Replying  to  the  Bryce  report,  she  says  the  Belgian 
behaviour  was  in  some  cases  very  irregular  and  even 
cruel,  and,  of  course,  her  military  machine  had  to 
put  it  in  order.  Replying  to  President  Wilson's 
communication  about  the  Lusitania,  she  makes  an- 
swer by  evasion  and  delay  and  by  allegation  of  what 
is  untrue  and  can  easily  be  proved  to  be  so.  If  the 
profitable  use  of  an  efficient  mechanism  necessitated 
the  loss  of  eleven  hundred  non-combatants  on  a 
passenger  ship,  including  six  score  American  neutrals, 
how  can  she  help  that?  If  such  a  destruction  was 
contrary  to  modern  habits  of  war,  what  is  that  to 
her.'^  She  has  some  new  machines  and  they  neces- 
sitate new  habits,  and  she  is  in  a  tight  place  and  must 
make  the  most  of  what  she  has! 

The  real  question  in  all  this  discussion  is  how  far 
mechanisms  are  to  be  allowed  to  dominate  men? 
That  is  a  question  that  affects  not  only  Germany  and 
us,  but  the  whole  civilization  of  this  time.  It  is 
interesting  that  this  question  whether  submarine 
mechanisms  have  rights  and  privileges  superior  to  all 
known  human  laws  should  come  for  a  decision  to 
President  Wilson,  whose  political  aspiration  from  the 
start  has  been  to  fetch  human  life  loose  from  the 
domination  of  mechanisms.  Life  goes  to  press  with- 
out the  advantage  of  reading  his  reply  to  the  German 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  159 

note,  but  in  full  confidence  that  it  will  not  be  a  reply 
that  will  confirm  in  any  measure  the  German  theory 
of  the  super-humanity  of  mechanisms.  No  doubt 
it  will  have  to  be  a  note  correcting  the  German  mis- 
apprehensions of  fact  about  the  status  and  equip- 
ment of  the  Lusitania,  and  so  calling  for  a  further 
response.  But  there  is  already  assurance  that  it  will 
give  no  encouragement  to  delay  or  evasive  discussion. 

As  for  the  possibility  of  our  being  drawTi  into  open 
war  with  Germany,  it  is  hard  to  get  excited  about  it. 
Germany  does  not  seem  like  a  nation  at  all ;  she  seems 
like  an  idea  and  a  condition  of  mind.  Fighting  her 
is  like  fighting  a  lunatic.  The  actuating  purpose  must 
be  the  utmost  avoidance  of  damage  that  is  consistent 
with  getting  a  strait  jacket  on  the  patient.  It  is 
no  fun  to  fight  a  lunatic,  and  there  is  no  glory  in  it, 
and  often  it  is  extremely  hard  and  dangerous  work. 
Our  attitude  towards  Germany  is  one  of  the  com- 
pletest  benevolence.  We  want  her  to  come  right  in 
her  mind  and  see  life  as  it  is,  and  stop  destroying  the 
world  she  lives  in.  That  is  all.  To  help  towards 
that  indispensable  achievement  we  will  do,  no  doubt, 
anything  we  can — advise  with  her,  send  her  ambas- 
sador home,  fight  her — chiefly  by  aiding  the  other 
keepers  of  the  great  world  sanitarium  in  their  efforts 
to  reduce  her  to  order. 

Those  efforts,  so  far  as  one  can  judge,  are  going 
oil  as  well  as  could  be  expected.  The  exertions  of  the 
patient  continue  to  be  wonderful,  but  the  Italian 
keeper,  who  has  lately  joined  the  sanitarium  forces, 
seems  an  active  man,  and  likely  to  be  an  appreciable 
help.  Rumania  has  not  joined  the  keepers  yet,  but  is 
waiting  in  line;  Holland  is  grumbling  very  audibl^^ 
and  in  accents  of  deep  apprehension,  and  one  even 
reads  of  Spain  as  making  efforts  to  increase  her  sup- 
plies of  munitions. 

There  is  much  complaint  from  England  about  the 


160  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

indisposition  of  the  British  workingman  to  exert 
himself  to  produce  ammunition.  Perhaps  that  is  just 
another  symptom  or  consequence  of  the  mechaniza- 
tion of  modern  Kfe,  which,  making  wealth  its  object, 
has  produced,  as  Mr.  Jacks  says  in  the  Hibbert 
Journal,  "conditions  which  satisfy  nobody  and 
against  which  all  men  are,  by  this  higher  human  na- 
ture, born  rebels."  If  the  British  mechanic  loves 
rum  better  than  England  and  is  not  pleased  enough 
with  his  share  of  machine-made  existence  to  sweat  to 
keep  the  Germans  out  of  it,  that  is  not  flattering  to 
machine-developed  life  in  England. 


June  17,  1915. 

STILL  at  this  writing  the  President  is  busy  with 
some  details  of  his  answer  to  the  German  reply 
to  the  Lusitania  note,  dotting  "i's,"  crossing 
"t's"  and  clinching  some  of  the  language  on  the 
underside  of  the  document  so  as  not  to  leave  in  it 

oT.  77.-  anything  that  is  misunderstandable.  As 
mg  ^^  ^^^  Gulflight  and  the  Gushing,  pre- 
sumably the  German  reply  was  acceptable.  As  to 
the  Lusitania,  it  was  not  acceptable.  Our  posi- 
tion is  that  our  citizens  may  embark  on  merchant 
vessels  of  the  warring  powers,  and  that  no  one  may 
sink  such  vessels  except  after  such  preliminary 
formalities  in  the  matter  of  taking  off  crews  and  pas- 
sengers as  are  prescribed  by  international  law.  What 
Germany  did  to  the  Lusitania  we  won't  have.  Nei- 
ther will  we  refer  such  behaviour  to  The  Hague  nor 
parley  long  about  it.  Germany  must  agree  not 
to  do  such  things  or  take  what  consequences  the 
United  States  may  contrive. 

That  is  what  a  great  majority  of  our  people  want 
and  expect  to  have  said.  The  sinking  of  the  Lusi- 
tania was  no  worse  than  plenty  of  other  things  that 
Germany  has  done  and  is  constantly  doing  in  this 
war,  but  it  is  the  one  great  thing  that  affects  our  coun- 
try and  about  which  there  can  be  no  skulking.  Ger- 
many can  neither  sidestep  the  responsibility  for  this 
horror  nor  argue  it  away.  She  has  got  to  face  it,  and 
either  back  down  or  take  the  consequences. 

It  has  been  revolting  in  a  way  to  have  any  further 
official  communication  with  a  government  that  sank 
the  Lusitania,  but  it  has  seemed  necessary.     If  we 

161 


162  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

are  to  break  with  Germany  we  must  break  on  definite 
and  justifiable  grounds.  We  owe  as  much  as  that 
to  German  sympathizers  here;  men  Kke  Dr.  Morris 
Jastrow,  of  Philadelphia,  who  has  said  what  he  could 
for  Germany  from  the  start,  but  who  will  not  back 
her  in  actions  which,  he  says,  are  "contrary  to  the 
cidtivated  humanitarian  instincts  of  mankind."  In 
her  own  interest,  says  Dr.  Jastrow,  Germany  "must 
be  made  to  see  that  she  cannot  conduct  a  war  with 
methods  that  endanger  her  position  among  the  na- 
tions of  the  world."  For  Germany's  sake,  pro- 
German  Dr.  Jastrow  would  have  our  government 
stand  firm  in  its  expression  of  American  abhorrence 
of  an  action  that  "stamps  this  w^ar  as  the  most  cruel 
since  the  Dark  Ages." 

Some  people  who  come  from  Europe,  especially 
from  the  hospitals,  say  that  we  do  not  begin  to  realize 
the  horrors  of  this  war.  Doubtless  not,  but  we 
realize  enough  to  maintain  an  increasing  unanimity 
of  opinion  that  it  is  so  intolerable  that  a  position 
on  the  outside  of  it  is  almost  as  bad  as  participation. 
We  blame  Germany  for  it  and  we  want  to  see  it 
stopped  at  Germany's  cost.  A  good  man^^  of  us 
think  we  should  have  become  active  participants 
before  this  to  bring  that  necessary  achievement  to 
pass.  A  good  many  more  of  us  feel  that  it  is  not  our 
war  and  we  should  be  wary  and  formal  about  getting 
into  it,  but  that  if  we  are  dra\^ai  into  it  on  just  grounds 
we  shall  be  where  we  belong. 

That  has  been  the  burden  of  many  of  the  bac- 
calaureate sermons  which  at  this  season  so  much 
abound.  There  are  very  few  voices  raised  in  en- 
treaties to  go  slow.  It  is  felt  that  that  counsel  is 
not  needed.  There  is  no  national  or  official  disposi- 
tion to  go  too  fast,  and  the  counsel  of  the  elders  and 
the  reverend  clergy  is  that  the  United  States  should 
face  its  dutv  to  civilization  and  do  whatever  that 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION^  163 

duty  demands.  Never  was  a  calmer  or  more  dis- 
passionate country  face  to  face  with  a  possibility  of 
war,  and  seldom  lias  a  people  been  more  united  in 
disposition  to  back  its  government  to  any  length  in 
whatever  course  seemed  right  to  it  to  follow. 

As  for  war  news,  it  has  of  late  been  comparatively 
dull.  The  Russians  have  been  short  of  war  material 
and  the  Germans  have  had  pretty  much  their  owti 
way  with  them.  One  reason  for  that  has  been  that 
Japan,  threatened  by  troubles  in  China,  kept  her 
shells  at  home  for  a  time  instead  of  shipping  them  to 
Russia.  But  that  embarrassment  is  over  now,  and 
the  port  of  Archangel  is  ice-free  at  last,  and  Russia 
is  being  fed  up  again  and  should  do  better. 

If  the  Dardanelles  can  be  cleared  and  Constanti- 
nople captured,  that  will  solve  many  side  problems 
and  start  a  new  set  of  calculations  about  the  duration 
of  the  war.  But  the  Dardanelles  are  obstinate,  and 
peace  speculations  continue  to  rest  much  more  on 
hope  than  on  expectation. 

We  know  that  the  Germans  can  beat  the  Russians, 
and  that  the  Russians,  when  they  have  the  neces- 
saries of  war,  can  beat  the  Austrians.  Nevertheless, 
even  for  Germans,  beating  Russians  is  a  fatiguing 
exercise  and  costly  in  life  even  when  the  Russians 
are  short  of  ammunition,  and  when  you  have  got  a 
lot  of  Russians  beaten  there  comes  along  a  new  swarm 
of  them  and  it  has  all  to  be  done  over  again.  With 
all  her  deficiencies,  Russia  is  still  a  considerable 
obstacle  between  any  other  European  nations  and 
world-power. 


June  2Jf,  1915, 

WHAT  a  wonderful  dispensation  of  Providence 
it  was  that  lifted  William  Bryan  so  gently, 
spectacularly,  and  opportunely  out  of  the 
Cabinet  where  months  ago  he  had  ceased  to  be  useful, 
and  placed  him  where  he  will  himself  be  alone  re- 
Mr  B  G  sponsible  for  his  opinions  and  deport- 
ment! Oh,  what  a  blessed  relief  it  is 
to  have  this  worthy  but  misguiding  brother  detached 
from  a  situation  where  he  seemed  to  speak  and 
act  for  the  American  people  and  restored  to  that 
freedom  which  belongs  to  folks  who  speak  only  for 
themselves!  It  was  not  worth  the  cruel  loss  of  the 
Lusitania  to  have  it  happen,  but  it  was  worth  very 
much.  And  to  have  it  done  voluntarily,  without  a 
quarrel,  by  Mr.  Bryan  himself  was  almost  a  kinder 
fortune  than  we  deserved. 

It  would  not  well  have  been  done  otherwise  than 
by  the  free  will  of  the  Departed,  for  truly  his  merits 
and  deserts  have  been  considerable.  His  usefulness 
and  loyalty  as  a  member  of  Mr.  Wilson's  Cabinet 
have  exceeded  the  expectations  even  of  those  politi- 
cians who  approved  his  appointment.  Really,  Mr. 
Bryan  has  been  very  good.  He  has  helped  the 
administration  as  much  as  he  could  (sometimes  to 
great  purpose)  and  has  lived  m  personal  urbanity 
with  his  fellow  cabineteers.  He  has,  of  course,  been 
an  impediment  to  business  and  an  anxious  care  as 
Secretary  of  State,  but  as  a  working  member  of  the 
administration  he  has  probably  been  worth  his  cost. 
The  opinion  that  "his  appointment  as  Secretary  of 
State  was  a  colossal  blunder"  (Boston  Transcript)  is 

164 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  165 

not  sound  at  all.  His  appointment  has  proved  a 
great  success  and  his  voluntary  retirement  is  the 
shining  crown  of  it. 

In  the  days  when  this  Republic  began  it  was  served, 
and  with  great  efficiency,  by  a  galaxy  of  statesmen 
who  had  firm  minds  and  (most  of  them)  loose  morals. 
Mr.  Bryan  is  an  example  of  the  opposite  sort.  His 
morals  are  firm,  but  his  mind  is  loose.  It  sees  part 
of  a  subject  vividly,  but  the  rest  it  skips.  It  is  a 
good  agitator  mind,  and  it  is  in  agitation  that  Mr. 
Bryan  has  made  his  fortune.  He  has  never  had  to 
be  responsible  for  anything  but  language,  and  not 
much  for  that.  He  has  lots  of  talent  and  cylinders 
enough  for  a  great  man,  but  when  he  trusts  his  mind 
it  plays  tricks  on  him  and  beguiles  him  with  mis- 
taken conclusions  and  proposals.  He  does  well  only 
when  he  has  a  competent  leader  and  sticks  to  him. 
He  found  such  a  leader  for  the  first  time  in  Mr.  Wil- 
son, whose  mind  is  an  entirely  different  organ  from 
his,  and  it  is  to  Mr.  Bryan's  credit  that  he  has  been 
so  pleased  with  Mr.  Wilson's  leadership  and  has  stuck 
to  him  so  long.  But  in  the  very  act  of  fetching  loose 
from  him  he  demonstrates  what  he  has  so  often  dem- 
onstrated before,  that  he  is  a  quack  statesman. 

A  quack  he  always  has  been,  and  no  doubt  will 
always  be,  not  because  he  does  not  love  the  truth, 
but  because  he  cannot  see  enough  of  it.  He  seems  a 
sincere  man  fooled  by  a  deluding  mind.  ^  His  sin- 
cerity, his  brass,  his  vigour,  his  talent,  his  human 
sympathies,  his  voice,  and  his  vivid  and  tenacious 
perception  of  what  he  sees,  make  him  a  leader,  and 
then  his  deluded  mind  twists  him  into  a  quack 
prophet. 

The  papers  complain  of  what  he  has  done  and  the 
way  he  did  it. 

Nonsense!  He  had  to  do  it.  That's  the  way  he  is 
made.     It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  him  raise  his 


166  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

blessed  old  standard  again.  If  all  the  political  goats 
presently  flock  to  it  we  shall  know  where  they  are 
and  how  many.  Things  are  no  longer  as  they  were 
when  the  Democrats  had  no  other  leader.  Lately 
Mr.  Bryan  has  been  keeping  out  of  the  Democratic 
party  new  recruits  who  wanted  to  come  in.  If  pres- 
ently he  sets  up  as  rival  candidate  to  Mr.  Wilson  we 
may  see  the  great  realignment  of  voters  which  has 
seemed  to  be  impending.  It  is  possible,  however, 
that  Mr.  Bryan  will  quit  party  politics  and  devote 
himself  to  the  improvement  of  the  habits  of  his 
countrymen  and  their  advance  in  religion. 

Mr.  Bryan  has  explained  that  the  second  Lusitania 
letter  did  not  have  enough  arbitration  in  it  to  satisfy 
his  peace  proclivities.  But  that  seems  to  have 
troubled  no  one  else.  The  letter  is  admirable,  very 
gentle  and  urbane  in  its  phrasing,  careful  in  every 
syllable,  but  of  a  due  and  definite  insistency  and 
penetration.  Praise  be  to  the  Divinity  that  has  thus 
shaped  this  end  of  our  rough-hewn  affairs!  Under 
Mr.  Wilson's  leadership  we  shall  do  our  duty.  Un- 
der Mr.  Bryan's  leadership  Heaven  knows  what  our 
course  would  have  been,  or  into  what  desperate  toils 
of  imbecility  it  might  have  led  us.  But  it  is  not  an 
accident  that  Mr.  Bryan  is  not  our  leader.  The 
American  people  never  have  accepted  his  guidance. 
Three  times  they  declined  it,  because  in  spite  of  a 
strong  and  warrantable  disposition  to  change,  they 
saw  he  had  not  the  mental  qualifications  to  be  a  safe 
President.  He  had  the  great  advantage  of  being  a 
hayseed  and  believing  fervently  in  all  hayseed  stan- 
dards; he  had  peculiarities  that  invited  the  hypothe- 
sis that  there  had  been  revealed  to  him  matters  not 
disclosed  to  the  wise;  he  had  a  great  deal  of  personal 
charm  and  understanding  of  the  art  of  popularity, 
so  that  he  has  always  been  able  to  make  himself 
agreeable  to  all  kinds  of  people,  and  yet  with  all 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  167 

these  advantages  and  the  use  three  times  of  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  Democratic  party  he  has  never  been 
quite  able  to  pull  our  great  country's  honourable 
leg.  The  trouble  has  been  with  his  mind.  It  never 
could  be  trusted  to  work  right.  With  a  different  bean 
on  him,  what  a  wonder  William  might  have  been! 

The  importance  of  our  country  as  a  factor  in  the 
great  war  is  very  much  increased  by  the  all  but 
universal  support  given  to  the  President  in  his  deal- 
ings with  Germany.  Mr.  Bryan's  compunctions  have 
met  with  virtually  no  response.  The  country  is 
satisfied  with  Mr.  Wilson's  management  of  its  foreign 
concerns,  and  will  back  it  wherever  it  leads.  No- 
body worth  mentioning  is  alarmed;  nobody  is  afraid 
of  a  war  with  Germany,  though  scarcely  any  one 
wants  it.  President  Wilson  well  expressed  the  gov- 
errdng  sentiment  of  the  country  when  he  said : 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  is  contending  for  some- 
thing much  greater  than  mere  rights  of  property  or  privileges  of 
commerce.  It  is  contending  for  nothing  less  high  and  sacretl 
than  the  rights  of  humanity,  which  every  government  honours 
itself  in  respecting  and  which  no  government  is  justified  in  resign- 
ing on  behalf  of  those  under  its  care  and  authority. 

That  is  the  pith  of  the  matter  and  really  tells 
what  all  this  correspondence  is  about.  It  is  about 
everything  that  has  happened  since  last  July,  not 
at  sea  alone,  but  on  shore  as  well ;  not  only  about  the 
Lusitania^  but  about  Belgium.  What  interests  our 
people  far  beyond  the  rights  of  property  is  civiliza- 
tion. They  will  do  now  what  they  lawfully  can  to 
save  it.  Nothing  will  induce  them  to  forego  these 
so-called  neutral  efforts,  and  they  will  insist  upon 
their  neutral  rights  because  the  interests  of  civiliza- 
tion demand  it. 

But  how  strange  a  thing  is  our  system  of  govern- 


168  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

ment!  Here  we  have  been  for  two  years  and  four 
months  educating  a  President  and  practising  him  in 
government.  In  another  year  we  will  be  in  process 
of  discussing  whether  to  lay  him  off  or  not,  and  in 
any  case  we  will  deposit  him  in  our  national  museum 
of  living  political  curiosities  not  later  than  on  March 
4,  1921.  It  is  a  funny  way  to  manage  and  seems 
wasteful.  We  train  soldiers  so  as  to  use  them  and 
have  them  on  hand  in  case  of  need.  But  we  use 
our  Presidents  untrained,  and  when  they  have 
learned  how  we  lay  them  off. 

Still,  there  are  worse  ways  than  ours.  If  Ger- 
many had  a  vote  coming  on  the  Hohenzollern  family 
the  possibilities  of  peace  would  look  considerably 
brighter. 


July  1,  1915. 

THERE  are  no  very  promising  visible  results 
as  yet  to  the  efforts  of  the  National  Security 
League  and  other  like  organizations  to  rouse 
us  to  the  importance  of  provision  for  self-defense. 
Young  men  invited  to  go  to  camp  and  learn  soldier- 
A  Sharp  Prod  iug  agree  that  it  may  be  advisable,  but 
Needed  gay,  "What's  the  use?     It  takes  valuable 

time,  and  there  would  only  be  a  handful  of  us,  after 
all,  and  our  labours  would  probably  be  wasted." 
There  is  willingness  enough  to  volunteer  for  war,  but 
reluctance  to  make  sacrifices  against  a  mere  possibil- 
ity of  war.  It  is  doubted,  apparently,  that  we  are  in 
much  immediate  danger.  We  are  a  long  way*off  from 
Europe  and  have  a  navy,  such  as  it  is,  and  the  Ger- 
mans are  very  busy,  and  no  one  else  over  there  has 
hostile  dispositions  towards  us  just  now.  So  we  do 
not  seem  to  be  in  acute  peril  from  Europe.  And  as 
for  Mexico,  the  problem  there,  if  we  get  entangled, 
will  be  not  defense,  but  to  get  together  an  expedi- 
tionary force,  and  for  that  we  could  take  what  time 
was  necessary. 

War  seems  to  us  Americans  so  foolish  that  in  spite 
of  all  object  lessons  we  can't  believe  that  we  are 
going  to  get  into  it.  Consequently  we  are  not  getting 
ready  on  our  individual  initiative,  and  we  are  not 
likely  to  make  any  preparations  worth  considering 
except  as  a  result  of  action  by  Congress.  If  war 
actually  comes  we  shall  spring,  of  course,  to  such  arms 
as  we  can  find  to  spring  to.  If  Congress  takes  action 
and  appropriates  money  to  provide  for  a  citizen  sol- 
diery, there  will  be  proceedings  on  a  large  scale  that 

169 


170  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

will  amount  to  something;  but,  judging  by  present 
signs,  private  enterprise  is  not  going  to  help  us  much 
in  war  preparation.  The  government  will  have  to 
move  in  the  matter  before  rnuch  will  be  done. 

That  is  a  reason  why  a  harsh  answer  from  Ger- 
many to  the  last  Lusitania  note  would  be  likely  to 
do  us  a  lot  of  good.  It  will  take  a  sharp  prod  of 
some  kind  to  get  us  moving.  Considering  what 
manner  of  proceedings  are  going  on  in  the  world,  we 
are  taking  life  much  too  easily. 

June  is  going  out  without  supplying  us  with  any 
very  happy  thoughts  about  Europe.  The  lament- 
able ding-dong  that  is  going  on  there  is  more  per- 
sistent than  progressive.  The  Germans  in  Galicia 
seem  to  be  having  things  very  much  their  own  way, 
but  not  to  an  extent  that  promises  to  affect  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  war.  The  English  have  made  mis- 
takes, especially  about  ammunition,  but  seem  to  be 
increasing  in  earnestness  and  diligence;  the  French 
have  held  their  own  and  a  little  better — perhaps  a 
good  deal  better — but  nothing  decisive;  the  Darda- 
nelles still  stay  shut,  and  their  opening  is  not  at  present 
advertised.  To  follow  the  activities  of  the  Italians 
takes  a  new  map  and  more  study  of  geography  and 
history  than  most  observers  afford,  but  they  seem 
to  be  aggressive  and  successful  in  their  attentions 
to  Austria,  and  as  yet  nothing  untoward  has  hap- 
pened to  them.  It  is  estimated  that  the  Germans 
are  now  at  the  top  of  their  military  strength  and 
will  not  be  so  strong  again,  whereas  the  Allies, 
especially  England,  will  increase  in  military  strength 
for  some  time  to  come.  That  encourages  patience 
under  German  successes  in  Galicia  and  talk  of  a  long 
war  to  be  ended  only  by  exhaustion. 

As  an  entertainment  the  war  seems  to  be  every- 
where a  failure.     Nobody  is  enjoying  ii;  not  the 


THE  DIAEY  OF  A  NATION 


171 


Germans,  the  French,  the  English,  nor  the  neutrals. 
They  like  it  so  little  that  they  are  ready  to  share  it 
with  all  applicants.  Greece  is  expected  to  join  the 
Allies  very  shortly,  and  perhaps  Rumania  at  the 
same  time.  There  never  was  more  dangerous  and 
unattractive  fighting,  but  the  stakes  are  enormous, 
and  for  European  countries,  staying  out  has  come 
to  be  almost  as  dangerous  and  expensive  as  getting  in. 
Then,  too,  participants  have  a  chance  to  win  some- 
thing, but  neutrals  have  no  prospect  except  of  loss. 

As  for  our  chance  of  getting  in,  it  does  not  look 
good.  It  lies  entirely  with  Germany,  and  German 
talk  seems  to  be  getting  rather  more  sensible.  There 
seems  to  be  a  growth  over  there  of  the  feeling  that  the 
defeat  of  the  rest  of  Europe  by  the  Teutonic  com- 
bine will  sufficiently  attest  the  superiority  of  their 
Kultur,  and  that  it  is  rather  a  pity  to  let  the  United 
States  get  more  involved  in  the  melee  than  they  are 
already.  The  mass  of  the  German  people  are  ter- 
ribly tired  of  the  war,  and  their  capacity  for  hating 
seems  to  be  getting  overstrained,  so  there  may  be  an 
earnest  effort  to  satisfy  the  demands  so  affably  pre- 
sented by  our  President. 

But,  as  above  remarked,  if  the  contrary  happens 
and  the  German  war-leaders  control  the  reply  to  our 
note  and  refuse  its  suggestions,  that  may  be  best  for 
us  in  the  long  run. 


July  ^2,  1915, 

THE  matter  of  the  German  note  is  very  sim- 
ple. The  German  Government  announced  on 
February  4th  that  after  the  18th  of  February  it 
would  destroy  any  enemy  merchant  ship  (it  could 
catch)  in  waters  surrounding  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
The  German  land,  and  could  not  undertake  to  avoid 
^ote  loss    of    passengers'    lives.      Our   govern- 

ment gave  notice  (February  19th)  that  it  would  hold 
the  German  Government  to  "strict  accountability" 
and  would  **take  any  steps  necessary  to  safeguard 
American  lives."  On  May  7th  the  Lusitania  was 
torpedoed.  On  May  13th  our  government  said  that 
the  right  of  American  citizens  to  travel  on  merchant 
ships  of  belligerent  nationality  must  not  be  abbrevi- 
ated. Germany  answered  (May  28th)  that  because 
of  the  exigencies  of  submarine  warfare  the  German 
commanders  were  no  longer  in  a  position  to  observe 
rules  of  capture  otherwise  usual.  Our  government 
replied  politely  (June  10th)  that  they  must  observe 
them,  and  there  came  (July  9th),  "in  the  spirit  of 
friendship,"  the  German  proposal  not  to  meddle 
with  American  ships  specially  marked,  announced 
beforehand  and  carrying  no  contraband,  and  to  allow 
four  enemy  steamships  for  passenger  traffic  under  the 
American  flag. 

Of  course,  this  is  a  very  great  abbreviation  of  the 
rights  of  American  citizens,  and,  of  course,  the  pro- 
posal cannot  be  accepted.  The  submarine  war  and 
these  notes  that  have  grown  out  of  it  are  consequences 
of  the  great  mischance  to  the  German  arms  eleven 
months  ago.     Germany's  weakness  on  the  sea  and 

172 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  173 

the  hold-up  of  her  trade  that  would  come  with  war 
were  recognized  by  Germans,  but  the  calculation 
was  to  win  so  great  an  advantage  by  the  first  over- 
whelming onset  as  to  offset  all  that.  But  it  didn't 
quite  happen  so,  and  here  is  the  war  in  its  twelfth 
month,  and  the  unhappy  German  Foreign  Office  try- 
ing to  get  relief  by  guile  from  embarrassments  that 
force  could  not  avert. 

Not  for  an  instant,  as  one  reads  the  latest  German 
note,  must  the  present  German  situation  be  forgotten. 
It  is  that  of  a  bully,  who,  after  forty  years  of  incessant 
preparation,  attacked  Europe,  was  foiled  in  its  first 
dash,  has  been  held  off  for  a  year  from  any  decisive 
advantage,  and  is  now  struggling  with  every  power 
it  has  to  escape  a  just  punishment  for  its  intolerable 
aggressions. 

Shall  the  cornered  bully  get  any  aid  from  Washing- 
ton? 

Thumbs  dow^n,  Uncle  Sam!    Thumbs  down! 

It  may  be  worth  remarking  that  the  German  note, 
while  dwelling  duly  on  the  atrocious  "lack  of  con- 
sideration" of  the  English  and  others  in  trying  so 
hard  to  shut  off  Germany's  wind,  has  not  a  word  to 
say  about  the  lack  of  consideration  shown  by  Ger- 
many for  the  neutral  Belgians.  The  note  says  that 
England  is  practising  to  give  the  German  people 
"the  choice  of  perishing  by  starvation  with  its  women 
and  children  or  of  relinquishing  its  independence." 
If  the  German  people  are  anywhere  near  starvation 
or  in  danger  of  it,  it  is  news;  but  who  was  it  that 
offered  the  Belgians  the  choice  between  war  and  the 
loss  of  independence  and  wrested  their  neutrality 
and  their  independence  from  them  and  left  them  to 
starve?  Oh,  what  a  beam  is  this  in  the  eye  that  sees 
so  distinctly  the  British  mote!  How  can  Germany 
have  the  face  to  talk  about  the  rules  of  international 
law  and  the  rights  of  neutrals?     And  her  complaints 


174  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

about  the  traffic  in  war  materials!  Who  seized  not 
only  Belgian  food  and  Belgian  money,  but  the  great 
Belgian  armories  and  munition  factories,  and  is 
running  them  now  day  and  night  with  all  the  Belgian 
labour  it  can  compel  to  work?  Having  seized  one  of 
the  greatest  neutral  gunshops  in  Europe,  the  plain- 
tive Germans  wail  over  the  disposition  of  the  Allies  to 
get  what  they  can  oversea,  and  at  the  unfeeling  con- 
duct of  the  Americans  in  selling  to  them.  It  is  like 
the  howl  of  a  burglar  who  has  robbed  a  storekeeper 
and  set  himself  up  in  business  and  bewails  the  incon- 
siderateness  of  a  competitor  who  gets  in  goods  from 
outside  and  starts  in  opposition. 

Mr.  Bryan,  who,  naturally  enough,  has  not  been 
able  as  yet  to  detach  himself  from  concern  about  our 
foreign  policy,  issued  a  statement  on  the  German 
note  and  the  American  comment  on  it,  in  which  he 
says  that  some  of  us  are  pro-German  and  some  of  us 
pro- Ally,  but  that  the  great  mass  of  the  American 
people,  if  he  knows  their  sentiments,  "are  interested 
solely  in  protecting  American  rights  and  in  preserv- 
ing American  neutrality."  He  is  not  willing  to 
gratify  the  pro-Germans  to  the  extent  of  putting  an 
embargo  on  arms  and  ammunition,  but  he  would  have 
us  accommodate  ourselves  to  their  submarine  war- 
fare by  separating  American  passengers  from  contra- 
band, and  especially  ammunition.  But  that  would 
be  to  change  our  sea-going  rules  in  war  time  to  favour 
Germany,  and  that,  if  we  are  to  take  the  exclusively 
American  view  that  Mr.  Bryan  approves,  would  be 
a  dangerous  proceeding.  American  individuals  can 
avoid  cargo  ships  and  contraband  if  they  choose,  and 
probably  do,  but  our  government  cannot  direct  them 
to,  nor  avoid  responsibility  for  their  protection  if 
they  make  their  travels  conform  to  the  rules  of  inter- 
national law. 

If  we  are  to  think  as  neutrals,  mindful  only  of  our 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  175 

own  immediate  interests  (which  is  not  at  all  the  way 
most  of  us  are  thinking),  we  will  do  well  to  think  a 
little  of  the  British  sea  power  which  Germany's 
submarine  activities  are  directed  to  destroy.  But 
do  we  want  it  destroyed?  Theoretically,  it  is  no  more 
right  that  Britannia  should  rule  the  waves  than  that 
Germania  should  be  the  world  bully  ashore,  but 
practically  Britannia  and  her  blessed  navy  are  at  this 
moment  the  mainstay  of  the  freedom  of  the  nations, 
and  but  for  them  Germany  would  not  be  at  these 
pains  to  write  notes  to  us,  but  would  do  as  she  liked 
with  no  more  concern  for  our  views  than  she  had  for 
Belgium's.  For  a  generation  Britannia  has  been  the 
great  marine  policeman.  As  trading  neutrals  we 
don't  want  her  efficiency  in  that  employment  to  be 
too  much  impaired  until  there  is  in  sight  a  competent 
substitute  to  do  for  us  and  others  what  she  has  been 
doing.  Looldng  off  from  any  high  point  on  this 
continent,  the  great  operating  check  to  German 
world-dominion  is  seen  to  be  British  sea  power.  If 
Germany,  by  provision  of  new  scraps  of  paper  not 
to  be  torn  up  until  she  gets  ready,  could  make  the 
seas  safe  for  trade,  war  or  no  war,  where  would  Free- 
dom, or  any  other  deserving  party,  look  for  help  the 
next  time  Germany  has  a  brainstorm  .^^ 

No,  Mr.  Bryan;  no,  brethren  all.  As  thoughtful 
neutrals  let  us  not  accommodate  Germania  quite  yet 
by  submission  to  her  new  sea  rules.  Better  let  this 
war  go  through  under  the  rules  it  began  with. 

Miss  Jane  Addams  was  very  much  impressed  with 
the  state  of  mind  of  Europe.  She  has  seen  much, 
talked  much,  and  brought  back  profound  impressions. 
One  of  them  was  the  impression  of  a  disturbance  too 
big  to  be  handled  by  the  people  engaged  in  it.  So 
she  is  for  having  some  kind  of  a  commission  of  neu- 
trals that  will  try  to  help  the  warring  nations  to  make 
peace. 


176  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

Judge  Gary  thinks  the  war  will  end  sooner  than  is 
supposed,  and  that  peace,  when  it  comes,  will  pop 
out  unexpected-like.  He  thinks  so  because  he  thinks 
the  war  is  so  bad  the  belligerents  can't  stand  it  much 
longer.  And  Miss  Addams  says  they  can't  stop  it 
and  it  is  for  neutrals  to  help  them  out.  The  Judge 
seems  a  very  suitable  neutral  to  be  on  Miss  Addams 's 
commission. 


August  12, 1915. 

NO  DOUBT  the  Germans  will  be  In  Warsaw  be- 
fore this  issue  of  Life  reaches  its  readers;  but, 
apparently,  they  will  find  an  empty  city, 
captured  at  very  great  cost  and  not  especially  profit- 
able if  the  Russian  armies  that  defended  it  get  away. 

A  Year  of  P  ^^^  ^^  ^^^  Writing  the  prospect  is  that 
they  will  get  away.  We  shall  not  be  able 
to  read  as  yet  the  items  of  the  bill  that  the  Germans 
have  paid  for  Warsaw,  but  it  is  very  heavy. 

The  first  year  of  the  war  has  come  to  its  close  with 
this  German  success  and  with  no  very  significant 
changes  on  the  line  of  the  western  trenches,  and  with 
the  Dardanelles  still  closed  and  Italy  hammering 
cautiously  but  pretty  hard  at  Austria.  The  Allies 
have  lately  had  some  serious  losses  and  no  great  recent 
successes;  nevertheless,  it  is  not  the  opinion  here- 
abouts that  matters  are  going  dangerously  well  for 
the  cohorts  of  Kultur,  There  are  lots  of  Germans, 
but  there  is  not  quite  no  end  to  them.  The  German 
resources  are  enormous,  the  German  energy  and  dili- 
gence is  prodigious,  the  German  willingness  to  spend 
lives  is  appalling,  but  the  Germans  are  not  knocking 
anybody  out.  The  inference  is  from  the  information 
we  get  that  after  Warsaw  the  Russians  will  still  be 
about  as  troublesome  as  ever.  The  Germans  can  kill 
and  capture  great  numbers  of  Russians,  but  they  can- 
not do  it  easily.  It  is  very  hard  work  and  very  costly 
in  German  lives,  and  there  are  always  many  more 
Russians  left  than  Germans. 

After  a  year  of  war  there  is  nothing  in  sight  but 
more  war.     The  tide  of  war  material  is  rising  against 

177 


178  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

the  Germans.  In  all  the  allied  countries  the  war 
factories  seem  to  be  increasing  their  output  and 
steadily  creeping  up  on  the  German  superiority  in 
facilities  for  destroying  civilization.  Germans  at 
home  do  not  seem  to  like  the  way  things  are  going. 
Some  of  the  Social-Democrats  make  bitter  complaints 
of  the  war,  and  are  able  to  print  them.  It  is  in  the 
papers  at  this  writing  that  Maximilian  Harden  has 
been  sent  away  from  Berlin,  which  is  interesting  if 
true,  for  Harden  has  an  inveterate  propensity  for 
blurting  out  truths.  For  weeks,  while  the  German 
drive  in  Poland  has  been  going  on,  the  main  items 
of  news  have  been  of  German  successes,  but  they  have 
not  materially  bettered  the  prospect  of  eventual 
German  success.  The  question  that  presses  is  not  so 
much  will  Germany  win  as  how  much  of  existing  civ- 
ilization will  she  be  able  to  destroy  before  she  is  beaten. 
For  there  are  people  nowadays  who  offer  you  the 
opinion  that  our  civilization  is  in  a  very  precarious 
state.  They  think  this  war  may  be  the  end  of  it. 
Not  that  we  will  dress  in  skins  and  live  in  trees  and 
caves  again  before  the  war  is  over,  but  that  somehow 
we  shall  all  be  so  hard  hit  that  our  apparatus  of  in- 
dustry, order,  and  exchange  may  crumble.  They 
feel  that  if  the  destruction  of  wealth  and  lives  goes  on 
much  longer  at  the  present  rate  our  world  will  be 
bankrupt  and  have  to  be  closed  to  business  and  pass 
through  a  receivership.  When  you  say  there  will 
still  be  people  and  they  can  still  plant  and  reap  and 
grind  and  support  life  and  make  and  swap  commodi- 
ties, they  speak  of  the  public  debts  that  are  piling 
up  by  the  hundred  billion  dollars.  When  you  say 
the  countries  will  have  to  dump  their  debts  if  they 
can't  pay  them,  they  tell  you  that  our  civilization 
rests  on  credit,  that  the  repudiation  of  national 
debts  would  destroy  credit,  and  that  the  conse- 
quences would  be  a  social  collapse. 


THE  DIAEY  OF  A  NATION  179 

There  is  doubtless  something  in  what  such  persons 
say.  Most  of  us  have  no  clear  idea  of  what  war 
debts  mean.  Current  destruction  of  life  looks  like 
a  loss  that  twenty  or  thirty  years  will  repair;  the 
diversion  of  industrial  energy  from  useful  commodi- 
ties to  war  material  is  wasteful,  of  course,  and  de- 
struction is  immensely  wasteful,  but  the  idea  of  a 
general  condition  of  human  existence  in  which  people 
who  do  not  personally  cultivate  a  potato  patch  will 
have  no  potatoes  comes  slowly  to  realization. 

Some  such  idea  as  that  seems  to  be  back  in  the 
heads  of  persons  who  fear  that  the  war,  if  it  goes  on 
long  enough,  may  destroy  our  civilization.  The 
Thirty  Years'  War  reduced  Germany  to  a  condition 
where  people  who  did  not  have  potato  patches  died. 
More  than  half  her  population  died.  If  it  is  going  to 
be  necessary  to  reduce  her  again  to  that  condition 
the  consequences  will  be  extremely  severe  not  only 
to  her,  but  to  everybody  concerned  in  doing  it,  for  it 
will  be  a  very  big  job  and  take  a  long  time.  So,  of 
course,  it  will  be  better  for  everybody  if  it  is  possible 
to  compass  the  restoration  of  the  Germans  to  sanity 
without  reducing  them  and  a  large  part  of  the  rest  of 
Europe  to  the  individual-potato-patch  level  of  exist- 
ence. For  we  are  used  to  such  civilization  as  we  have, 
and  would  miss  it,  however  harshly  we  aver  that  it  is 
a  poor  thing.  For  most  of  us  motor-drawn,  tailor- 
clad  creatures  to  be  shaken  out  of  our  tree  of  life  and 
have  to  start  again  somewhere,  maybe  as  pilgrim 
fathers,  would  come  as  a  hard  jolt,  however  much 
good  it  might  eventually  do  our  characters. 

That  is  the  excuse  for  everybody  who  practises 
or  prays  or  even  babbles  to  stop  the  war.  We  are 
all  concerned,  all  endangered  by  it. 

What  is  it  for,  anyway?  What  must  be  accom- 
plished before  it  can  safely  stop.^^  Napoleon  had  an 
errand  in  the  world  and  did  it — rather  overdid  it  in 


180  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

the  end.  He  pretty  well  exploded  the  divine  right  of 
kings,  which  has  looked  foolish  ever  since  he  made  a 
butt  of  it,  in  spite  of  its  mischievous  survival  in 
Prussia.  That  this  war  will  extend  Napoleon's  work 
in  that  respect  has  all  along  seemed  probable.  But 
that  is  not  enough.  Is  there  enough  good  in  German 
Kultur  to  justify  so  great  an  expense  to  advertise  it  to 
the  world?  Napoleon  could  not  conquer  the  world, 
but  he  could  change  it,  and,  that  done,  he  passed  on 
out.  Prussia  cannot  conquer  the  world,  but  she  has 
been  able  to  change  it,  and  it  may  be  that  is  her  er- 
rand, and  when  it  is  done  she  will  pass  on  out  as 
Napoleon  did.  The  Great  Administrator  used  Napo- 
leon to  plow  Europe  for  the  planting  of  democracy. 
It  may  be  the  use  of  Prussia  is  to  plow  it — and  all  the 
world — for  a  planting  of  order.  We  don't  like  Ger- 
man Kultur  as  we  see  it,  but  no  one  can  deny  that  it  is 
a  great  crop.  It  could  not  have  been  raised  unless 
the  Prussian  tares  had  been  allowed  to  grow  up  with 
it;  but  harvest  it,  thresh  it,  and  fan  the  tares  out  of 
it,  and  it  may  be  food  the  world  needs.  Kultur — 
what  is  good  of  it — may  conquer  the  world,  though 
Prussia  never  can,  and  if  it  is,  or  contains,  or  leads  to, 
the  method  that  secures  the  greatest  happiness  of  the 
greatest  number,  the  world  may  get  to  like  it. 

At  all  events,  at  present  German  methods  have 
all  the  world  under  instruction  and  are  prodding  it  at 
every  point.  For  the  only  cure  for  the  world  just 
now  seems  to  be  a  hair  of  the  dog  that  bit  it.  If  it  has 
to  kill  the  dog  to  get  the  hair,  that  will  be  a  pity,  but 
such  details  seem  beyond  human  arrangement. 


August  19,  1915, 

MORE  people  will  go  to  a  football  match  than 
to  a  lecture,  and  more  people  will  read  the 
news  under  headlines  that  tell  of  a  battle 
than  will  read  the  details  of  diplomatic  discussions. 
The  Lusitania  notes  to  Germany  commanded  at- 
The  British  tention  because  they  might  lead  to  war. 
Blockade  The  discussion  with  Great  Britain  about 
the  efiFect  of  the  British  blockade  on  our  exports  and 
imports  has  not  that  claim  on  public  attention.  It 
is  the  duller  reading  because  there  is  no  fight  in  it. 
There  are  many  million  dollars'  worth  of  goods  piled 
up  in  Rotterdam  that  our  merchants  want.  There 
are  many  million  dollars'  worth  of  products  here  that 
clamour  to  be  exported.  That  makes  discussion 
necessary,  but  it  does  not  excite  the  general  mass  of 
readers.  They  want  our  folks  to  get  what  should  be 
coming  to  them  and  approve  the  efforts  of  the  govern- 
ment to  bring  about  that  conclusion,  or  at  least  to 
keep  the  record  straight  as  to  neutral  rights.  But 
the  main  interest  of  the  great  mass  of  Americans, 
unless  Life  mistakes  it,  is  not  in  these  details  of 
trade,  important  though  they  are,  but  in  the  greater 
issues  of  the  war,  the  prodigious  struggle  of  the 
Allied  Powers  against  the  vast  pretensions  and  prep- 
arations of  Germany.  They  are  concerned  about 
the  future  of  Europe  and  the  immediate  future  of 
civilization;  concerned  to  discover  whether  for  a 
generation  to  come  or  longer  the  world  is  to  be  cowed 
by  Teutonic  ambitions  resting  on  Teutonic  force. 
They  see  in  England  and  in  the  might  of  the  British 
navy  one  of  the  main  obstacles  to  that  consummation, 

181 


182  THE  DIAEY  OF  A  NATION 

and  while  they  recognize  that  so  long  as  the  United 
States  continues  to  be  neutral  it  is  under  obligations 
to  stick  out  for  neutral  rights,  they  are  very  loath  to 
have  the  powers  of  our  government  used  to  embarrass 
England  and  all  the  Allies  in  a  struggle  in  which  four- 
fifths  of  the  people  of  this  country  are  heartily  on  the 
Allies'  side. 

Accordingly,  the  great  majority  of  us  see  in  the 
notes  to  Great  Britain  not  peremptory  demands,  but 
necessary  negotiations.  England  is  to  do,  and  doubt- 
less will  do,  what  she  can  to  relieve  our  embarrass- 
ments. Our  disposition,  if  our  governmejit's  action 
matches  the  feelings  of  four-fifths  of  us,  will  be  to 
think  first  of  her  embarrassments  and  only  second- 
arily of  our  own.  One  group  in  this  country  wants 
from  England  the  most  the  law  allows.  The  other 
group  wants,  at  this  time,  the  least  the  law  demands. 
If,  as  we  believe,  the  second  group  is  four  times  as 
big  as  the  first  one,  it  is  because  in  the  minds  of  that 
group  the  interest  of  our  country  in  having  the  war 
end  right  far  outweighs  for  the  time  being  all  con- 
cern about  shipping  cotton  or  getting  in  dyes. 

The  best  that  can  be  said  about  the  fall  of  Warsaw 
is  that  it  arrived  ten  months  late  and  might  have 
been  worse,  but  it  might  have  been  so  much  worse 
that  that  is  a  great  deal  to  say. 

How  much  more  of  Russia  will  Germany  wish  to 
occupy  at  a  price  proportionate  to  the  price  paid  for 
Warsaw  .f^  There  appears  to  be  vastly  more  of  Russia 
to  be  had  than  there  are  Germans  to  pay  for  it,  and 
in  the  end  every  acre  of  Russia  that  Germany  may 
occupy  will  again  be  Russia's,  except  so  much,  per- 
haps, as  may  become  part  of  a  new  Poland. 

It  has  been  noticed  in  the  papers  that  at  this  year's 
annual  convention  (at  San  Francisco)  of  the  National 
German-American  Alliance  the  suggestion  was  of- 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  183 

fered  that  if  our  immigration  laws  were  not  improved 
so  as  to  make  our  population  more  select  and  com- 
mendable, the  tide  of  immigration  would  turn,  and 
what  Germans  we  have  would  begin  to  stream  back 
to  the  old  country. 

Probably  not.  There  will  be  lean  pickings  in  the 
Fatherland  for  long  after  the  war  and  little  attrac- 
tion to  immigration.  Moreover,  we  have  had  small 
accessions  from  Germany  of  late  years,  and  our 
original  Germans  who  came  here  for  political  reasons 
seemed  to  like  tliis  country,  and  their  descendants 
doubtless  like  it  and  will  stick  to  it.  Nevertheless, 
the  great  war  has  brought  out  as  it  never  was 
brought  out  before  the  fact  that  it  is  hard  to  be  so 
many  kinds  of  people  as  we  are  at  once.  It  is  not 
impossible,  but  there  are  difficulties  about  it.  As 
long  as  we  could  go  along  without  any  deeper  internal 
rivalries  than  the  eternal  competition  for  a  living  the 
difficulties  did  not  become  prominent,  but  since  the 
German  Kiiltur  has  transpired  as  something  that 
defies  and  despises  all  the  rest  of  civilization  and 
practises  to  subdue  and  change  it  as  devotees  prac- 
tise for  the  triumph  of  their  creed,  the  difficulties 
have  become  easily  visible. 

The  cure  for  them  would  naturally  be  to  devise 
and  develop  an  American  Aaron's-rod  Kultiir  that 
would  swallow  all  the  others.  Something  has  been 
done  in  that  line.  We  have  the  public  schools, 
albeit  they  are  nibbled  at  all  the  time  by  adherents 
of  various  ideals  that  the  public  schools  cannot  teach. 
But  not  enough  is  done.  Somehow  it  must  be  ac- 
complished far  more  thoroughly  than  is  done  yet, 
that  when  the  question  is  put,  "Who  is  Who  in  the 
United  States.'^"  the  answer,  both  prompt  and  defi- 
nite, will  be,  "The  Americans!" 

This  defining  and  crystallizing  of  nationalities 
seems  to  be  one  of  the  great  results  that  is  to  be  forced 


184  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

onto  the  world  by  the  onset  of  the  German  Kultur, 
and  how  it  is  to  be  effected  without  the  subversion 
of  individual  liberty  as  we  have  known  it  is  a  great 
problem.  One  detail  of  the  problem  in  this  country 
is  the  provision  of  military  and  naval  forces  sufficient 
for  our  protection  and  to  give  a  proper  emphasis  to 
our  sentiments.  It  is  a  curious  thing  that  the  pro- 
Germans  as  a  rule  are  able  to  combine  opposition 
to  a  reasonable  American  provision  of  this  sort, 
with  hearty  sympathy  with  the  most  efficient  mili- 
tary nation  in  the  world. 

The  hyphenated  Americans  know  that  American 
activity  in  military  preparation  just  now  would  be 
unfavourable  to  Germany's  pretensions.  Conse- 
quently they  oppose  even  the  most  moderate  meas- 
ures. 


August  26, 1915. 

THE  Plattsburg  training  camp  has  much  ex- 
ceeded expectations.  It  has  been  overrun 
with  apphcants  of  a  high  quahty.  If  it  did 
nothing  else,  it  would  be  worth  its  keep  as  an  adver- 
tisement of  the  need  and  possibility  of  military  train- 
p,  ,  ing.  It  has  attracted  thirteen  hundred  re- 
cruits, including  a  large  proportion  of  sty- 
lish or  otherwise  distinguished  and  husky  young 
men  whose  names  the  newspaper-reading  public 
knows,  and  feels  an  interest  in  their  proceedings. 
They  are  men  excellently  qualified  to  set  an  example. 
An  example  is  useful  in  proportion  as  it  is  known. 
The  example  set  by  the  Plattsburg  war  students  is 
comparable  in  its  reach  to  that  set  by  the  Rough 
Riders  in  the  Spanish  War.  It  helps  to  make  mili- 
tary training  the  fashion,  and  that  is  a  real  help  to 
the  country.  That  such  lively  politicians  as  Mayor 
Mitchel  and  Collector  Malone  should  betake  them- 
selves to  Plattsburg  means  a  good  deal.  It  suggests 
that  active  young  men  with  leadership  in  them  see  in 
the  camp  an  opportunity  they  ought  not  to  miss. 

Probably  the  camp  is  pretty  good  fun.  The  com- 
pany is  excellent,  and  in  having  fun  good  company  is 
the  biggest  factor.  The  work  is  hard — about  as  hard, 
apparently,  as  training  for  football,  but  it  is  interest- 
ing, and  the  papers  say  the  progress  made  in  mili- 
tary knowledge  hy  the  neophytes  is  marvellous. 

In  June  people  were  saying:  " How  flat  that  train- 
ing camp  proposal  has  fallen!  Nothing  will  be  done 
till  Congress  votes  money  and  the  government  takes 
hold." 

185 


186  THE  DIAEY  OF  A  NATION 

But  it  did  not  fall  flat.  Something  has  been  done 
without  waiting  for  an  appropriation.  An  effectual 
appeal  was  made,  and  the  appealers  kept  at  it  till 
they  got  an  effectual  response.  Give  them  credit  for 
their  efforts;  they  deserve  it. 


September  9,  1915. 

THE  interesting  question  about  the  war  is, 
what  it  will  do  to  the  world.  For  months 
the  great  question  has  been,  Can  the  Germans 
beat  all  creation?  But  all  creation  seems  to  be  neither 
winning  nor  losing.  It  is  hanging  on  like  grim  death. 
Wanted:  ^^^  secms  likely  to  continue  in  that  pos- 
Democratic  turc  cveu  if  it  docs  uo  better.  Conse- 
Di^ciphne  quently  concern  about  what  the  Germans 
may  do  is  giving  way  a  little  to  inquiry  and  con- 
jecture as  to  what  the  war  may  do. 

Evidently  it  is  changing  the  world.  But  how  much 
and  in  what  particulars? 

Mr.  Beveridge,  of  Indiana,  has  been  over  to  in- 
spect it,  and  offers  us  his  guess.  He  no  longer  feels 
that  the  war  is  a  contest  between  absolutism  and 
democracy.  He  believes  that,  whoever  wins,  the 
war  will  produce  in  all  European  countries  except 
Russia  "an  immeasurable  advance  in  democracy 
expressed  in  terms  of  collectivism."  Team  work 
wins,  and  Germany  is  ahead  in  that,  but  the  other 
countries,  England  especially,  are  hurrying  to  catch 
up.  The  principle,  as  he  sees  it,  that  runs  through 
all  the  new  war-born  laws  in  England — as  the  De- 
fense of  the  Realm  Act — is  "government  control  of 
fundamentals  for  the  common  good."  The  applica- 
tion of  that  principle,  he  thinks,  will  outlast  the  war 
and  the  people  of  the  countries  that  have  had  exper- 
ience of  it  will  not  let  it  go. 

But  our  gifted  Hoosier  brother  must  recognize 
that  Germaii  collectivism  and  German  Kultur,  Ger- 
man team  work  and  power  generally,  rest  on  disci- 

187 


188  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

pline,  and  that  the  source  of  German  discipline  has 
been  autocracy  and  the  steady  squelching  of  demo- 
cratic aspirations.  The  Prussian  kings  have  governed, 
and  governed  extremely  well  in  many  particulars. 
They  kept  the  Prussians  under  discipline  and  made 
them  the  most  efficient  robbers  in  Europe.  Also 
very  efficient  farmers  and  manufacturers.  They  and 
their  discipline  developed  Germany  on  its  material 
side.  They  made  a  wonderful  job  of  it.  The  only 
trouble  was  that  they  omitted  to  develop  Germany's 
moral  sense  along  with  her  wealth.  They  had  no 
moral  sense  in  matters  of  state,  and  taught  their 
subjects  not  political  righteousness,  but  merely 
obedience.  Their  collectivism  includes  leave  to  pil- 
lage the  neighbours  whenever  Germany  feels  strong 
enough. 

It  is  Prussian  discipline  that  is  crowding  the  world 
so  hard,  and  the  question  is  whether  democracy  can 
produce  a  discipline  to  match  and  overcome  it.  If 
it  cannot,  Prussian  discipline  based  on  autocracy 
seems  likely  to  possess  the  earth.  So  the  war  seems 
still  to  be  a  contest  between  absolutism  and  democ- 
racy, its  main  errand  being  to  compel  democracies  to 
develop  and  maintain  an  effective  discipline.  Col- 
lectivism may  result  from  the  war,  but  it  will  be  a 
by-product.  The  main  result  will  be  democratic 
discipline — a  better  authority,  a  better  obedience, 
and  better  team  work,  as  Mr.  Beveridge  says. 


September  28, 1915, 

HENRY  FORD  says  he  has  ten  million  dollars 
to  spend  if  necessary  to  persuade  this  coun- 
try that  peace  is  always  the  best  plan.  No 
doubt  he  has  the  dollars  and  is  ready  to  spend  them, 
but  his  reported  talk  does  not  give  much  promise  that 
Have  Patience,  his  investment  will  be  effective.  He 
Henry!  thinks  people  have  a  false  idea  of  war 

that  ought  to  be  educated  out  of  them.  He  imagines 
that  they  are  fooled  by  the  glory  and  glamour  of  it. 
He  wants  all  pages  glorifying  war  to  be  torn  out  of 
the  school  histories.  He  wants  the  people  to  be  per- 
suaded that  preparedness  for  war  creates  war. 

Henry  does  not  seem  to  realize  that  several  times 
ten  million  dollars  is  being  spent  every  day,  and  has 
been  spent  every  day  for  fourteen  months,  to  per- 
suade mankind  that  peace  is  the  best  plan  and  that 
excess  in  preparation  for  war  is  about  as  dangerous  as 
no  preparation  at  all.  Our  newspapers  and  movie 
shows  are  telling  the  truth  about  war  nowadays  in  so 
far  as  they  can  get  it.  They  represent  it  as  a  terrible 
job.  The  glory  and  the  glamour  of  it  go  for  nothing. 
It  is  all  tragedy,  the  purge  of  the  passions;  tragedy, 
destruction,  and  waste.  Henry's  ten  millions  would 
be  a  mere  scratch  on  the  slate  compared  with  the 
daily  picture  of  war  that  we  have  been  getting  this 
last  year. 

Have  patience,  Henry.  This  is  a  war  against  w^ar. 
Folks  who  survive  it  are  going  to  be  gim-shy  for 
some  time.  You  have  done  a  great  deal  to  make  life 
attractive.  That  is  your  great  service  to  peace,  be- 
cause the  pleasanter  life  is  the  less  people  want  to 

189 


190  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

die.  But  war,  Henry,  brings  a  much  greater  lesson 
than  that — the  lesson  of  self-sacrifice.  Nobody  is 
much  good  who  has  not  in  him  some  idea,  some  ideal, 
that  he  cares  more  for  than  he  does  for  life,  even 
though  it  is  life  alleviated  by  the  Ford  motor.  You 
help  to  make  life  pleasant,  but  war,  Henry,  helps  to 
make  it  noble,  and  if  it  is  not  noble  it  does  not  matter 
a  damn,  Henry,  whether  it  is  pleasant  or  not.  That 
is  the  old  lesson  of  Calvary  repeated  at  Mons  and 
Y'^pres  and  Liege  and  Namur.  Whether  there  are 
more  people  in  the  world  or  less,  whether  they  are 
fat  or  lean,  whether  there  are  Fords  or  oxen,  makes 
no  vital  difference,  but  whether  men  shall  be  willing 
to  die  for  what  they  believe  in  makes  all  the  difference 
between  a  pigsty  and  Paradise.  Not  by  bread  alone, 
Henry,  shall  men  live. 

As  for  military  preparedness,  enough  is  good  and 
salutary;  too  much  is  militarism,  and  that  is  bad, 
bad,  bad,  as  the  Germans  are  teaching  us.  They 
are  the  great  teachers  of  peace,  and,  be  sure,  Henry, 
they  shall  learn  that  lesson  themselves  down  to  the 
last  line.  Leave  peace  propaganda  to  them;  but 
you,  if  you  have  ten  millions  to  spare,  put  it  into  Ford 
ambulances  for  France. 


September  30, 1915. 

GENTLEMEN  opposed  to  establishing  a  credit 
in  this  country  for  the  AlKes  include: 
Mr.  Hearst. 
Mr.  Bryan. 
Mr.  Jeremiah  Leary,  president  of  the  American 

A  Credit  ^T^^^^  Society. 

far  the  Mr.   James   Hamilton   Lewis,  of  Virginia, 

Allies      Georgia,  Washington,  and  Illinois,  [the  Avell- 
known  carpet-bag  Senator. 

A  swarm  of  hyphenated  gentlemen  not  necessary 
to  record. 

In  spite  of  this  opposition  the  credit  seems  about 
to  be  established,  maybe  for  half  a  billion  dollars, 
maybe  for  a  billion.  tVhatever  the  sum  is,  it  repre- 
sents an  American  bet  that  France,  England,  and 
Russia  are  not  going  to  be  wiped  off  the  map  of 
Europe  in  the  present  set-to.  There  are  those  who 
predict  that  the  fighting  nations  will  have  to  repudi- 
ate their  war  debts.  This  credit  will  be  an  American 
bet  that  they  won't.  It  will  be  a  bet  that  the  Bel- 
gians will  get  back  Belgium,  and  the  French  Northern 
France;  a  bet  against  payment  of  indemnities  to 
Germany  by  anybody;  a  bet  against  "f rightfulness," 
against  the  armed-robber  habit  in  nations,  against 
Hunism,  Kaiserism,  Prussianism,  and  the  most 
brutal  warfare  waged  in  Europe  for  three  centuries. 

If  we  are  to  continue  to  trade  with  the  Allies  we 
have  got  to  bet  in  this  way  that  they  will  win.  They 
cannot  send  us  gold  enough  to  pay  for  what  they 
buy,  nor  would  it  be  to  our  fiscal  advantage  to  have 
them  do  so.     A  plethora  of  gold  is  a  fiscal  nuisance. 

191 


192  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

If  we  are  to  sell  to  them  far  more  for  a  time  than  they 
can  sell  to  us,  we  must  give  them  credit  and  take 
their  paper.  So  by  these  negotiations,  born  of  trade 
necessity,  ours  as  well  as  theirs,  we  get  a  step  further 
into  the  war,  to  the  disgust  of  Mr.  Bryan  and  all  the 
pacifists,  and  the  satisfaction  of  every  one  who  cares 
to  have  it  demonstrated  which  side  the  United  States 
is  on  in  this  great  war. 

Parson  Eaton,  the  Madison  Avenue  Baptist,  takes 
the  bull  squarely  by  the  horns  and  declares  that  the 
war  is  "the  greatest  blessing  that  has  befallen  man- 
kind since  the  German  Reformation." 

That  is  putting  it  strong,  though  not  all  our  breth- 
ren admit  that  the  German  reformation  was  a  bless- 
ing; but  so  it  reads  in  Dr.  Eaton's  sermon  in  the 
Monday  papers.  The  world,  he  says,  was  losing  its 
soul  and  got  the  war  to  cure  it  by  the  purge  of  pain. 

Many  people  feel  so  about  the  war  and  see  a  neces- 
sity in  it;  that  things  could  not  go  on  as  they  were 
going,  and  there  had  to  be  a  great  shaking  down  of 
card  houses  and  reconstruction  of  life  from  the  bot- 
tom of  better  materials.  But  Americans  who  feel 
this  way  wonder  how  our  country  is  to  get  its  share 
of  the  discipline. 

But  countries  don't  go  out  after  discipline.  If  it 
comes  to  them  they  take  it,  but  not  till  it  comes.  It 
is  possible  that  our  country  has  dodged  its  duties, 
especially  in  Mexico,  but  the  case  is  not  clear.  Cer- 
tainly no  one  with  justice  can  blame  the  United 
States  for  not  yet  being  in  Europe's  war.  It  was 
not  our  business  to  butt  in.  It  is  complained  of 
President  Wilson  that,  having  nothing  to  fight  with, 
he  has  been  satisfied  with  talk,  and  that  he  has  finally 
talked  words  that  may  mean  war  without  any  inten- 
tion of  fighting  and  without  any  provision  to  that 
end. 

Of  course,  he  has  known  what  his  words  meant. 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  193 

no  one  better,  and  he  has  known,  too,  that  we  can 
get  into  war  without  previous  provision,  without 
much  risk  of  being  hurt.  We  are  in  no  danger  of 
war  with  any  one  except  Germany.  Germany's 
ships  are  locked  up  and  she  can't  get  over  here  to  do 
us  a  damage.  But  if  we  go  to  war  with  her,  we  can 
do  her  a  lot  of  damage  from  the  start.  That  Mr. 
Wilson  has  not  called  a  special  session  of  Congress  to 
vote  money  for  military  preparation  is  no  argument 
at  all  that  he  does  not  realize  that  the  position  he 
took  with  Germany  about  the  sinking  by  submarines 
of  merchant  ships  might  any  day,  and  still  may,  join 
us  with  the  fighting  Allies.  Life  is  of  opinion,  and 
has  been  for  eleven  months,  that  both  our  army  and 
navy  should  be  strengthened,  and  it  favours  a  con- 
siderable expenditure  to  that  end.  But  it  is  not  the 
lack  of  means  to  fight  that  has  kept  us  out  of  the  war, 
for  we  have  the  means — cotton,  copper,  wheat,  beef, 
munitions,  and  money.  And  the  truth  is  that,  though 
Congress  has  not  voted  an  extra  dollar  for  war^  prep- 
aration, preparation  has  gone  on  enormously  in  the 
increase  of  means  for  manufacture  of  war  material. 
We  are  vastly  better  able  than  we  were  a  year  ago 
to  be  a  powerful  ally  to  the  Allies. 

Let  no  one  suppose,  therefore,  that  we  have  got  to 
avoid  war  even  at  cost  of  honour  because  we  are  not 
prepared  for  it.  That  is  not  so,  and  no  one  knows 
it  better  than  President  Wilson. 


October  U,  1915. 

THE  gist  of  the  war  news  seems  to  be  that  at 
last  the  AlHes  have  caught  up  with  Germany 
in  preparation.  They  seem  to  have  armies 
enough  and  shells  enough  and  making  to  give  due 
emphasis  to  their  operations.  That  means — if  one 
The  Allies  accepts  it  as  true — that  there  will  not 
Have  Caught  be  any  longer  the  advantage  to  Ger- 
^^  many   of   having    thought   of   everything 

beforehand.  That  advantage  lasted  more  than  a 
year.  The  advantage  that  is  left  to  Germany  and 
her  accomplices  is  their  central  position.  The  other 
advantages — numbers,  wealth,  the  command  of  the 
sea,  and  power  thereby  to  draw  on  all  the  resources 
of  the  continent  of  America — are  with  the  Allies. 

We  have  had  evidence  that  there  is  plenty  of  fight 
in  the  men  on  the  French  side  of  the  western  line  and 
plenty  of  means  to  fight  with.  It  is  not  a  deadlock 
any  more,  but  an  active  line  with  the  invaders  on  the 
defensive  and  something  important  liable  to  happen 
any  minute.  German  reports  have  pared  down  Al- 
lied successes  as  much  as  possible,  but  a  great  deal 
remains.  And  the  successful  half -billion  loan  in  this 
country  is  a  success  that  cannot  be  pared  down. 

Mr.  Villard,  writing  to  the  Everdng  Post  from 
Washington,  groans,  warrantably  enough,  about  the 
war,  and  avers  that  the  longings  for  peace  of  the 
people  of  the  fighting  countries  are  censored  out  of 
print  and  do  not  find  the  expression  that  they  should. 

Doubtless  not.  No  doubt  the  European  appetite 
for  war  is  completely  sated  and  the  people  of  every 
country  engaged  long  every  day  more  passionately 

194 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  195 

for  peace.  But  longings  for  peace  will  not  bring  it. 
Nothing  will  bring  peace  but  to  fight  the  war  out  to  a 
point  where  Germany  is  ready  to  quit.  Then  there 
can  be  peace,  and  peace  on  that  basis  is  appreciably 
nearer  than  it  was  a  year  ago.  But  until  a  change 
befalls  the  German  mind  so  that  it  gives  up  its  con- 
ception of  Christendom  as  a  storehouse  for  Germans 
to  pillage,  there  can't  be  any  lasting  or  comfortable 
peace  in  the  world. 

Meanwhile,  even  to  us  who  are  not  being  personally 
killed,  the  war  is  a  very  weary  proceeding.  V\^e  all 
want  to  have  it  over  so  that  we  can  make  some  new 
plans  for  living.  We  cannot  make  such  plans  until 
we  begin  to  see  what  the  world  is  lils:ely  to  be  like 
for  the  next  half-century.  The  break  in  thought 
that  the  war  has  made  is  prodigious.  A  lot  of  people 
have  been  winning  money  betting  on  war  stocks.  No 
doubt  they  have  been  interested  in  it,  and  it  has 
helped  to  get  their  minds  off  the  war  for  a  little 
while,  which  must  be  a  relief.  IMaybe  the  money 
will  be  good  after  the  war.  But  who  knows  .^  After- 
the-war  is  a  faraway  picture  behind  a  veil.  One 
puts  on  glasses  to  look  at  it,  but  still  it  is  dim.  The 
people — are  they  real  people?  The  money — is  it 
real  money?  Life — is  it  real  life  and  anything  like 
the  life  we  are  used  to? 

At  this  writing  the  papers  say  that  President  Wil- 
son is  going  to  vote  for  woman  suffrage  in  New  Jersey. 
One  feels  that  he  might  just  as  well  vote  to  let  women 
vote  in  heaven,  since  he  knows  hardly  less  about 
existence  there  than  about  mundane  existence  after 
the  war. 

Judge  Cullen  says  the  work  on  the  revision  of  the 
constitution  must  all  go  for  naught  because  of  the 
omission  to  put  a  proper  restraint  on  the  power  of 
military  tribunals.  It  seems  a  severe  sentence  even 
if  the  offense  is  conceded,  but  think  of  repairing  a 


196  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

State  constitution  in  this  year  of  direful  tumult,  to 
be  used  after  the  war! 

And  Admiral  Fiske  dreams  in  the  North  American 
Review  of  the  possible  acquirement  of  world  mastery 
by  some  "monster  of  efficiency,"  and  then  of  "wars 
beside  which  the  present  struggle  will  seem  pygmy!" 

Tut!  Tut!  War  stocks,  votes  for  women,  our 
tinkered  constitution,  all  seem  about  equally  specula- 
tive as  the  guns  roar  all  around  the  great  German 
ring.  But  so,  doubtless,  Burke  felt  about  the  French 
Revolution,  and  after  all  it  was  real  money  that 
Nathan  Rothschild  won  on  the  battle  of  Waterloo. 


November  4^,  1915. 

THE  President,  one  reads,  will  insist  in  his  next 
message  to  Congress  upon  a  practical  consider- 
ation of  the  question  of  national  defense.  He 
is  understood  to  have  approved  army  and  navy  bud- 
gets providing  for  an  increase  of  one  hundred  and 
National  forty  millions  over  last  year's  appropriations. 
Defense  and  he  is  expected  to  ask  Congress  for  this 
money  and  to  expound  the  need  of  it.  He  wants 
this  provision  to  be  made,  not  sometime,  but 
now.  A  year  ago  or  thereabouts  he  took  this  whole 
matter  under  advisement  and  made  recommendations 
in  a  message.  Nothing  was  done  about  it.  A  year 
is  enough  for  the  country  to  think  such  a  matter  over 
in.     This  time  he  wants  something  done. 

Mr.  Bryan  is  flatly  opposed  to  any  such  increase. 
It  is  inspired,  he  insists,  by  the  measureless  cupidity 
of  the  munition  makers.     He  says  in  the  Commoner: 

No  time  is  to  be  lost;  immediate  action  is  necessary.  Con- 
gress will  soon  meet,  and  when  it  meets  this  issue  wUl  confront 
it.  Write  to  your  Congressman;  write  to  both  your  Senators, 
Tell  them  that  this  nation  does  not  need  burglar's  tools  unless  it 
intends  to  make  burglary  its  business;  it  should  not  be  a  pistol- 
toting  nation  unless  it  is  going  to  adopt  a  pistol-toter's  ideas. 

Here  is  the  basis  for  a  new  line-up.  The  prospect 
seems  to  be  that  the  Democrats  in  Congress  will  go 
by  a  very  large  majority  with  the  President,  and  will 
pass  army  and  navy  bills  that  will  satisfy  him.  But 
if  Mr.  Bryan  is  able  to  muster  any  considerable  op- 
position it  may  lead  to  a  very  interesting  split  in  the 
Democratic  party  and  later  to  rival  definitions  of 

197 


198  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

Democratic  doctrine  in  various  particulars  by  Mr. 
Wilson  and  Mr.  Bryan,  which  may  next  year  affect 
many  votes,  both  for  nomination  and  election.  A 
great  number  of  Wilson  Democrats  think  Mr.  Bryan 
the  most  dangerous  influence  in  public  life.  They 
v/ant  to  be  quit  of  his  domination  finally  and  com- 
pletely, and  they  will  welcome  a  division  in  Congress 
which  will  show  just  how  much  political  influence  he 
has  left. 

The  land  is  full  of  voters  who  in  this  world-crisis 
want  this  country  to  discharge  its  full  duty  to  hu- 
manity. They  don't  know  clearly  what  that  duty  is, 
but  they  are  ready  to  back  whatever  leader  has  the 
power  and  the  spirit  to  fulfill  that  desire.  President 
Wilson,  and  no  one  else,  has  the  power  and  will  con- 
tinue to  have  it  for  a  year  and  four  months  longer. 
We  cannot  waste  any  of  that  time.  We  cannot  wait 
until  after  another  election  to  learn  what  is  the  feel- 
ing of  the  country  and  to  organize  it  for  possible 
action.  When  Congress  meets  we  must  find  out 
where  we  are;  find  out  who  is  for  the  United  States 
and  humanity;  who  is  ready  to  organize,  arm,  and 
prepare,  and  who  is  for  a  pacifistic  inaction.  We 
must  also  find  out  who  is  for  America  first  and  who 
for  Germany  first. 

President  Wilson  has  the  people  with  him  far  more 
than  any  other  leader.  His  administration  is  for  the 
most  part  satisfactory  to  most  of  the  people.  He 
called  the  other  day  for  a  line-up  of  all  America- 
first  Americans.  He  has  come  out  in  favour  of  an 
increase  in  military  preparation,  and  it  is  evident 
that  he  is  not  in  the  least  in  awe  of  our  Germany- 
first  voters.  In  all  measures  for  national  protection 
and  assertion  he  will  be  entitled  to  the  support  of 
every  one  in  Congress  who  believes  in  national  pro- 
tection. Party  lines  are  very  much  blurred  just 
now,  anyway.     In  this  matter  of  putting  the  country 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  199 

into  a  position  to  meet  any  duty  there  should  be  no 
party  Hnes,  and  probably  there  will  be  none.  If  the 
President  will  put  his  foot  on  the  hard  pedal  and 
strike  the  right  note,  Progressives,  Republicans,  and 
hard-shell  Democrats  will  all  come  running  to  the 
standard  of  the  United  States  for  Humanity. 

Apparently  he  is  prepared  to  do  that  very  thing. 
No  one  can  accuse  him  to  advantage  of  wanting  to 
get  us  into  war,  for  he  has  hugged  peace  right  along, 
not  so  tight  as  he  gets  credit  for,  but,  certainly, 
tight  enough.  If  he  calls  for  large  military  and  naval 
appropriations  nobody  can  raise  a  scare  of  militarism 
at  his  expense,  for  if  he  has  a  fault  in  that  direction 
it  is  that  he  has  delayed  his  call  overlong.  If  the 
pacifists  in  Congress  attempt  to  talk  an  army  bill 
to  death  or  to  pieces,  as  they  probably  will,  we  shall 
see  how  many  pacifists  there  are  in  Congress  and 
whom  they  represent,  and  we  shall  also  see  who  is 
for  the  pork-barrel  and  who  for  the  United  States. 
There  is  a  prospect  that  within  the  next  four  months 
we  shall  learn  a  great  deal  about  the  temper  and 
sentiments  of  the  American  people,  and  to  persons 
who  believe  that  our  nation  is  sound  at  heart  it  is  a 
cheering  prospect. 

We  shall  want  to  hear  what  George  McClellan, 
apologist  for  Germany  in  Belgium,  has  to  say  in 
justification  of  the  execution  of  Miss  Cavell,  the 
English  nurse.  Disapprobation  of  the  German  con- 
duct in  shooting  her  because  she  had  helped  Belgian 
and  English  fugitives  to  escape  from  Brussels  has 
been  very  emphatic.  Col.  McClellan  may  point 
out  that  she  broke  the  German  rules  and  that  her  life 
was  forfeit  under  German  military  law.  He  may  feel 
that,  though  she  was  not  in  the  ordinary  sense  a  spy, 
she  deserved  or  had  lawfully  incurred  what  she  got. 

It  is  possible  to  go  a  point  further  and  hold  that, 
considering  what  hands  she  was  in,  Miss  Cavell  got  off 


200  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

easy.  She  was  shot;  that  was  all;  an  honourable 
death.  Scores  of  Belgian  women  have  been  shot; 
hundreds  of  women,  both  in  Belgium  and  France, 
have  sufiPered  far  worse  than  that,  and  as  for  the 
Armenian  women,  we  all  know  what  the  Kaiser's 
allies  have  done  to  them,  not  merely  by  the  hundred 
or  the  score,  but  by  the  hundred  thousand.  To 
shoot  an  Englishwoman  for  breaking  German  war- 
rules  is  the  worst  that  Germans  dare  at  present  to  do 
openly  in  Brussels.  What  they  do  in  secret  Heaven 
knows,  but  their  public  military  conduct,  as  General 
Joffre  has  pointed  out,  is  much  improved  since  the 
battle  of  the  Marne  warned  them  that  they  might 
have  to  make  an  accounting  for  their  actions. 


November  18, 1915. 

PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  plea  in  his  Manhat- 
tan Club  speech  for  a  better  military  system 
is  a  harbmger  of  changes  that  will  be  forced 
upon  us  by  the  experiences  of  our  neighbours.  What 
he  calls  "the  problem  of  the  mobilization  of  the  re- 
A  Better  sources  of  the  nation"  has  got  to  be  worked 
Military  out,  and  will  be  worked  out,  because,  as  he 
System  g^^^^  ^^^  ^iave  become  thoughtful  of  the 
things  which  all  reasonable  men  consider  necessary 
for  security  and  self-defense  on  the  part  of  every 
nation  confronted  with  the  great  enterprise  of  human 
liberty  and  independence. 

Which  is  to  say  that  we  are  getting  down  to  brass 
tacks  in  the  matter  of  national  defense.  It  is  time 
Mr.  Garrison's  plan  contemplates  an  increase  in  the 
regular  army  to  about  140,000  men,  and  the  enlist- 
ment and  training  of  reserve  forces  at  the  rate  of 
133,000  a  year,  so  that  in  three  years  we  should  have 
a  reserve  force  of  400,000,  besides  the  State  militia. 
That  seems  moderate  enough  and  is  a  tentative  plan 
with  details  still  to  be  worked  out  and  the  whole  sub- 
jected to  assault  and  battery  in  Congress. 

Mr.  Bryan  is  frankly  and  heartily  opposed  to  any 
increase  of  military  preparation.  Some  of  the  papers 
say  he  is  "bitterly"  opposed,  but  we  do  not  see  the 
bitterness.  He  is  in  opposition,  where  he  belongs, 
and  the  only  place  where  he  could  long  be  politically 
happy  or  useful. 

He  seems  very  happy  now,  carrying  the  banner  of 
unarmed  peace,  warning  the  country  against  the 
machinations  of  the  greedy  munition-makers  and 

201 


202  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

calling  with  all  his  voice  for  new  subscribers  for  the 
Commoner, 

Mr.  Bryan  is  not  exactly  for  non-resistance,  but  he 
feels  that  so  long  as  Colonels  such  as  he  was  in  '98  and 
troops  such  as  he  commanded  can  be  improvised  when- 
soever the  tocsin  peals,  the  country  is  safe.  Mr.  Bryan 
feels  that  talking  is  cheaper  than  drilling,  and  he  is 
better  at  it,  but  the  country  doesn't  seem  to  think  so. 

No  doubt  the  expostulation  which  our  government 
has  conveyed  to  the  British  Government  about  the 
rude  treatment  of  American  trade  by  British  block- 
aders  is  all  warranted  by  facts  and  justified  by  law. 
As  expostulations  go,  it  seems  an  excellent  job,  dis- 
pleasing to  some  of  our  German  friends  because  it  is 
too  polite,  and  to  some  of  our  British  brethren  as  ill- 
founded  and  meddlesome.  The  British  claim  that 
they  have  a  good  case  at  law  for  everything  they  have 
done,  and  a  discussion  is  in  prospect  which  is  not 
likely  to  be  hurried  unless  by  Congress. 

Let  us  all  be  patient  in  this  matter.  We  ought  to 
be,  for  various  reasons.  We  shall  have  to  be,  anyhow, 
since,  thanks  largely  to  Bro.  Bryan,  we  have  a  treaty 
with  Great  Britain  which  provides  for  a  year  of  patience 
in  every  dispute  before  doing  anything  awkward. 

Brand  Whitlock  is  coming  home  for  a  few  weeks  of 
rest.  He  brings  with  him  the  greatest  reputation  made 
so  far  by  any  American  in  the  war.  He  is  forty-six 
years  old,  and  his  birthday,  significant  to  remark,  is 
the  fourth  of  March.  Whether  there  will  be  anything 
left  of  him  when  he  gets  through  with  Belgium  is  a 
question,  but  if  there  should  be  an  available  remnant, 
it  will  be  regarded  with  great  interest  by  politicians. 

Report  says  that  Mr.  Whitlock  is  tired  out.  If  so, 
our  first  duty  to  him  is  to  let  him  alone  until  he  gets 
rested.  But  the  great  debt  Americans  owe  him  for 
what  he  has  done  in  their  name  will  doubtless  find 
expression  before  he  goes  back. 


November  25, 1915, 

THE  details  of  the  sinking  of  the  Ancona  are 
still  far  from  clear,  but  the  points  in  dispute 
are  only  important  for  their  bearing  on  the 
duty  of  our  government  in  the  matter.     If  the  ship 
tried  to  rmi  away,  to  destroy  her  would  rank  tech- 
.  nically  as  iustifiable  homicide,  whereas  if  she 

was  sunk  unresisting  and  not  even  trying  to 
escape,  it  is  a  case  of  murder. 

;0f  course,  to  sink  such  a  ship  in  such  a  fashion  is 
utter  murder  anyhow,  and  of  a  sort  that  would  shame 
an  old-time  pirate.  She  was  loaded  with  non-com- 
batants, men,  women,  and  babies,  bound  for  New 
York.  About  two  hundred  of  them  were  drowned. 
This  exploit  is  credited  as  yet  to  Austria,  as  the  sub- 
marines that  accomplished  it  had  Austrian  flags. 
It  is  entirely  possible  that  they  were  German,  and 
that  the  German  navy,  baffled  in  its  frightfulness, 
uses  where  it  can  the  Austrian  flag  to  evade  the 
obligations  of  decency  its  government  has  been 
obliged  to  incur. 


203 


December  9, 1915, 

WHY  must  the  education  of  our  good  friend 
Henry  Ford  be  conducted  with  such  a 
vast  publicity?  We  have  had  so  much 
education  of  this  very,  very  pubhc  sort  in  the  last 
three  years!  Really,  it  is  trying!  There  was 
H  F  d  J^sephus  Daniels,  who  had  to  learn  the 
enry  at  ^^ujij^gnts  of  deportment  right  under  the 
eyes  of  a  hundred  million  people.  Josephus  has 
learned  a  good  deal,  but  the  publicity  of  his  processes 
of  instruction  must  have  been  trying  to  him,  and  they 
certainly  were  to  us.  William  Bryan  had  to  take  a 
course  in  statesmanship  under  like  conditions  of  ex- 
posure. He  learned  enough  to  appreciate  that  he 
was  a  victim  of  misplacement,  and  that  was  very  use- 
ful, but  how  much  it  would  have  saved  his  feelings, 
and  ours,  if  he  could  have  been  privately  taught! 
The  whole  Democratic  administration  were  green 
hands — except,  perhaps,  Mr.  Lane — and  had  to 
learn,  and  we  had  to  sit  and  bear  it,  because  we  had 
put  them  into  office,  and  that  is  the  democratic  way. 
We  were  responsible  for  them,  but  we  are  not  re- 
sponsible for  Henry  Ford.  He  has  got  to  mind  his 
own  eye.  He  is  not  our  representative,  does  not 
speak  or  act,  stay  at  home  or  go  abroad,  for  us,  and 
must  himself  take  all  the  chances  of  his  own  educa- 
tion. If  he  gets  pinched  as  a  suspicious  character, 
he  must  not  expect  us  to  go  on  his  bail  bond.  We 
shall  be  sorry  to  see  anything  painful  happen  to  him, 
for  he  is  a  good  man,  but  if  he  goes  abroad  with  a 
shipload  of  pacifists  and  pro-Germans,  as  is  at  this 
writing  his  published  intent  ion,  our  friends  abroad,  if 

201 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  205 

we  have  any  left,  must  take  notice — and  they  are 
hereby  notified — that  the  expedition  is  a  private  ven- 
ture of  Henry's,  and  that  we  are  not  his  accomphces 
nor  chargeable  with  his  misdoings,  if  he  does  any. 
If  he  and  his  friends  should  be  interned  somewhere, 
or  be  shooed  off  the  coast  of  Europe  and  run  into  a 
mine,  we  shall  be  sorry,  but  will  not  do  anything  more 
tragic  about  it  than  write,  maybe,  another  note. 

Henry  is  right  in  hating  the  war  and  wanting  to 
stop  it.  We  all  hate  it  and  want  it  to  stop.  He  is 
right,  too,  in  his  willingness  to  do  anything  he  can, 
all  scoffers  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  "VMiere 
he  seems  to  us  to  be  wrong  is  in  thinking  he  knows 
how  to  do  any  good.  It  looks  to  us  as  though  he 
didn't;  as  though,  even  with  the  help  of  Jane  Ad- 
dams,  he  would  not  be  able  to  be  useful,  and  might 
even  be  detrimental  to  the  cause  of  peace.  In  so  far 
as  he  makes  us  ridiculous  he  hurts  American  in- 
fluence, though  perhaps  that  amounts  to  so  little, 
anyhow,  that  hurting  it  doesn't  matter.  If  the  war 
was  ripe  to  be  stopped,  and  we  could  stop  it  to  the 
real  advantage  of  civilization  by  being  ridiculous, 
it  would  be  our  duty  to  do  it  and  take  the  ridicule  as 
it  came.  The  ridicule  would  all  come  out  in  the 
wash,  and  meanwhile  lives  would  be  saved  by  the 
million.  Anybody  with  proper  feelings  would  be  a 
olown  or  martyr  to  stop  the  war,  provided  it  was 
stopped  right.  Henry  dares  to  be  a  clown,  and  prob- 
ably has  good  martyr  stuff  in  him,  and  that  may  make 
him  a  means  of  good,  in  spite  of  everything. 

And  if  not,  his  education  goes  forward,  anyhow, 
and  that  is  important,  because  he  is  so  rich  and  so 
restless.  Let  him  do  anything  he  will  that  is  not 
against  the  law.  If  our  country  has  had  a  fault  in 
this  war,  it  has  been  in  being  overcautious.  Henry  is 
free  from  that  fault.  He  rushes  in  where  angels  fear 
to  tread. 


December  16,  1915. 

DISCUSSING  the  jincona  case  in  a  letter  to 
the  New  York  Evening  Post,  Theodore  C. 
Janeway,  of  Baltimore,  remarked  how  drows- 
ily we  had  taken  the  destruction  of  the  Ancona 
compared  with  our  alertness  about  the  Lusitania. 
Girding  at  Why  had  the  moral  reaction  been  so  faint 
the  Empire  jn  the  Ancoua  case?  He  said  the  reason 
was  that  "righteous  indignation  which  does  not 
issue  in  any  deed  to  right  the  wrong,  destroys  the 
power  to  act  in  the  future,  and  in  the  end  leads 
only  to  pessimism  or  to  the  abandonment  of  moral 
standards."  He  felt,  what  thousands  of  people  feel, 
that  we  have,  somehow,  lost  our  punch.  Emotion, 
he  said,  which  does  not  find  an  outlet  in  action,  be- 
comes a  source  of  weakness,  not  of  power.  He 
seemed  to  make  no  account  of  our  government's 
notes,  accepting  the  English  view  that  the  German 
submarines  had  abandoned  the  Channel  because  the 
English  had  made  it  too  hot  for  them. 

A  great  many  people  fear,  as  Mr.  Janeway  does, 
that  we  have  let  our  indignation  ooze  away  and  have 
nothing  to  show  for  it.  The  thought  drives  some  of 
them  frantic.  They  think  they  see  the  moral  sense 
of  the  country  disappearing  beneath  the  yellow  slime 
of  traders'  profits.  They  can't  bear  that,  and  some 
of  them,  like  Colonel  Roosevelt  and  the  Tribune, 
rail  at  President  Wilson.  As  far  as  their  railings 
show  concern  for  our  national  honour  and  for  hu- 
manity we  are  bound  to  respect  them  and  share  a 
good  deal  of  the  emotion  with  which  they  are  charged. 
But  they  are  not  fair  to  the  President.     He  cannot 

206 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  207 

force  a  situation  nor  move  faster  than  events.  He  is 
caught  in  the  predicament  that  affects  all  neutral 
countries,  and  which  was  well  described  in  the  letter 
of  an  English  doctor  who  wrote  from  the  front  months 
ago: 

War  being  what  it  is,  it  is  hopeless  to  expect  that  any  nation 
will  engage  in  it  who  does  not  fear  great  loss  or  hope  for  great 
gain.  Nations  will  always  be  ravaged  by  the  influences  which 
are  now  swaying  Italy,  Greece,  Bulgaria,  and  Rumania.  No 
desire  of  justice  would  lead  those  countries  to  join  us.  I  doubt 
if  it  would  justify  their  rulers  in  declaring  war. 

However  the  President  feels,  he  cannot  yet  be  a 
partisan  in  this  war.  He  is  the  umpire  between 
those  who  want  to  get  in  with  the  Allies  and  those 
who  want  to  keep  out,  and  he  is  exposed  to  the  atten- 
tions which  the  umpire  usually  receives  from  ardent 
partisans  in  a  close  game.  The  Fatherland  and  the 
Tribune  hoot  and  yell  at  him  with  about  equal  fury. 
One  has  dead  cats,  the  other  rotten  eggs  to  throw  at 
him.  Both  wait  their  chance  and  holler  all  the  time. 
Nevertheless,  the  great  mass  of  spectators  still  thinks 
the  umpire  is  doing  pretty  well  and  will  see  that  this 
game  between  the  Get-ins  and  the  Stay-outs  goes  to 
the  true  winners. 


December  23,  1915. 

HENRY  FORD  really  did  get  off,  and  has  not 
been  turned  back  yet  at  this  writing. 
It  is  a  happiness  to  think  of  that  wonder- 
ful yachting  party  bounding  over  the  deep  at  the 
costs  of  the  adventurous  Detroit  Fortunatus! 
Ford  and  His  Andrew  Carnegie  never  thought  of  any- 
Pilgrims        thing  SO  sporty  as  that. 

What  one  hates  to  think  is  that  such  a  party  must 
arrive  and  break  up!  Why  should  it  arrive?  Why 
disband .f^  The  Flying  Dutchman  never  arrived: 
its  company  never  disbanded.  There  is  a  precedent 
for  Henry.  Let  him  buy  the  Oscar  II  and  keep  sail- 
ing that  cargo  of  pacifiers  around,  putting  individuals 
ashore  only  in  response  to  calls  by  wireless.  Thus 
when  the  Allies  capture  Berlin,  if  they  want  Ben 
Lindsay  to  be  Governor,  put  Ben  ashore,  but  not  till 
then.  Sam  McClure  always  needs  a  rest.  He  is 
years  behind  in  repose.     This  is  his  chance  to  get  it! 

0  Navis  !  as  Horace  would  say — O  ship  that  carries 
Henry  and  all  those  living  curiosities;  do  not  occupy 
any  port;  keep  sailing  of  them  around  and  have  the 
newspapermen  keep  accurate  logs  of  what  happens. 
Meanwhile,  perhaps  the  nations  will  stop  fighting  to 
laugh. 

The  Providence  Journal  suggests  that  Henry  Ford 
may  be  Tolstoi's  "strange  figure  out  of  the  North" 
who  is  to  hold  Europe  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand  for 
ten  years.  The  man  of  Tolstoi's  vision  was  to  be, 
not  a  soldier,  but  something  more  like  a  journalist. 
Henry  is  an  advertiser  and  could  qualify  as  a  near- 

208 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  209 

journalist.  His  passport  entitles  him  to  land  in 
Norway,  and  Norway  is  "the  North."  The  odds 
seem  very  long  against  his  making  any  deep  impres- 
sion on  Europe,  but  suppose  we  try  to  state  the  case 
for  Henry  Ford. 

When  everybody  has  said  all  they  can  about 
Henry,  and  called  him  all  the  kinds  of  a  fool,  it  will 
be  in  order  for  them  to  produce  samples  of  Sensible 
Men  to  whom  the  concerns  of  the  current  fire-alarm 
world  might  well  be  entrusted.  They  will  find  that 
in  the  last  year  the  ranks  of  such  persons  have  been 
terribly  depleted.  Just  as  regiments  in  the  war  have 
been  repeatedly  cleaned  out  and  re-recruited,  so  it 
has  been  with  the  world's  platoon  of  sensible  men. 
A  year  and  a  half  ago  a  number  of  people  were  very 
generally  respected;  to-day  two  of  the  thirds  of  man- 
kind think  each  other  crazy,  and  the  third  third  thinks 
both  are  right.  For  no  active  leader  of  men  in  the 
world  to-day  is  there  the  slightest  difficulty  in  getting 
a  convincing  certificate  of  incapacity.  Consider  our 
Mr.  Wilson.  He  was  pretty  well  thought  of  up  to  a 
year  ago.  But  to-day  draw  up  a  declaration  that  he 
is  a  craven  word-spout  who  has  dishonoured  the 
country,  and  before  noon  you  can  get  several  million 
signatures,  headed  by  "T.  Roosevelt."  Draw  up 
another  to  effect  that  he  is  a  militarist  reactionary, 
and  millions  will  sign  after  "W.  J.  B."  Make  a  like 
declaration  about  any  active  politician  in  England — 
Asquith,  Lloyd-George,  Churchill,  Northcliffe,  Car- 
son— and  you  can  do  the  same  there.  Possibly  in 
France  there  might  not  be  more  than  a  million  signa- 
tures to  a  condemnation  of  General  Joffre,  but  any 
one  else  would  easily  get  five.  The  only  king  in 
Europe  who  has  got  any  credit  out  of  the  war  is 
Albert. 

The  war  is  about  as  popular  as  an  epidemic  of 
typhoid.     The  biggest  and  most  coruscating  decora- 


210.  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

tion  that  it  produces  will  go  to  the  resounding  hero 
who  stops  it.  When  there  comes  along  some  one  who 
can  say  with  authority,  "Merciful  God!  people,  put 
on  your  hats  and  go  home!''  and  makes  them  go, 
that  person  will  go  down  in  history.  If  the  states- 
men, from  Bismarck  down,  whose  management  has 
brought  Europe  to  its  present  wrack  have  been  wise 
men,  anybody  ought  to  feel  complimented  to  be 
called  a  fool. 

It  seems  in  order  to  offer  a  resolution  that  the 
principles  on  which  the  world  has  been  conducted 
are  played  out.  The  balance  of  acquisition  seems 
to  have  broken  down.  The  trough,  big  as  it  is,  is  not 
big  enough  for  all  the  hogs.  Just  now  the  available 
powers  of  regulation  can  achieve  nothing  but  destruc- 
tion, and  ever  more  destruction.  The  German  ambi- 
tion to  dominate  the  Earth  is  hopelessly  brutal;  the 
British  aspiration  to  retain  the  Earth  is  inevitable 
and  compulsory;  the  Russian  bureaucracy's  ambition 
to  attain,  possess,  and  throttle  is  only  tolerable  as  an 
ofPset  to  the  black  and  stupid  Earth-greed  of  the 
Prussian  junkers.  France  wants  her  own,  and  is 
willing  to  die  for  it.  Hers  is  the  best  case,  and  her 
allies  shine  with  reflected  light,  but  the  immense  and 
tragic  folly  of  the  war  as  a  whole  makes  Henry  Ford 
and  his  preposterous  pilgrims  seem  almost  sensible 
by  contrast.  If  the  world  must  be  managed  foolishly, 
Henry  and  his  fools  seem  about  as  well  qualified  for 
a  turn  at  the  job  as  the  Hohenzollern  family,  or  the 
Hapsburgs,  or  the  Romanoffs. 

The  trouble  is  not  with  the  people,  but  with  the 
system  which  in  the  long  run  makes  fools  of  every- 
body who  tries  to  sustain  it.  The  people  are  good- 
enough,  fallible  folks.  William  Hohenzollern  is  not 
such  an  objectionable  ass  as  we  are  apt  to  think. 
It  is  the  absurd  and  iniquitous  aspiration  that  he  is 
geared  to  that  makes  the  trouble.     Our  3 Jr.  Wilson 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  211 

is  a  good  man  and  able,  though  somewhat  furtive. 
The  reason  that  our  excellent  Mr.  Roosevelt  finds  so 
much  fault  with  him  is  that  Mr.  Wilson  is  committed 
to  play  a  game  for  which  he  has  no  stomach.  He 
hates  fighting  and  has  to  call  for  troops  and  ships. 
Most  of  us  hate  fighting  and  have  to  provide  to  have 
it  done,  and  maybe  do  it  ourselves.  None  of  us  ap- 
pear well  in  playing  a  game  we  hate.  But  Mr. 
Roosevelt  likes  war  and  shines  in  it.  Heaven  know^s 
what  will  happen  to  Henry  Ford,  but  at  least  he  has 
had  the  nerve  to  bet  his  money  on  a  game  he  likes 
instead  of  on  one  that  he  detests.  He  may  be  Tol- 
stoi's strange  man  from  the  North,  or  he  may  be 
merely  a  guy  from  Detroit,  but  he  says  to  Europe, 
*'If  I  am  a  fool,  what  are  you.^  At  least  I  am  harm- 
less, but  you  are  destroying  civilization." 

The  Great  Martyr  whose  birthday  comes  this 
week  died  to  break  this  old-world  system  dow^n.  It 
has  been  modified  in  twenty  centuries,  much  modi- 
fied we  used  to  think,  but  it  clings  hard  to  life,  and 
still  survives.  So  many  people  are  dying  every  day 
now,  some  to  abate  and  some  to  defend  it,  that  dying 
has  come  to  seem  an  every-day,  natural  matter.  One 
could  die  for  something  worth  while  just  now  and  feel 
that  it  was  all  in  the  day's  work.  One  could  die  with 
the  gallant  French  defending  France,  or  with  the 
British  going  to  earth  in  French  soil  for  England,  or 
with  the  Russians  staggering  onward  under  their 
bitter  load  of  obstructive  tyrannies,  or  even  for  the 
infatuated  Germans,  riveted  to  a  fatal  purpose,  but 
better  than  their  cause.  To  die  for  humanity  is 
comprehensible,  is  almost  easy,  but  who  would  die 
for  this  great  system  of  grab  that  misconducts  the 
world .f^  If  we  have  got  to  arm,  let  us  arm  to  beat  it; 
if  we  have  got  to  fight,  let  us  fight  to  beat  it;  if  we 
have  got  to  die,  let  us  die  to  beat  it.  The  world  is 
worth  a  better  method.     It  is  too  good  a  world  to  be 


n^  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

run  in  the  interest  of  "business";  too  good,  to  be  run 
by  Ferdinands  and  Constantines,  by  the  Russian 
Tchiknovic,  by  Von  Tirpitzes  and  Von  Bissings  and 
the  Prussian  drill-masters  and  goose-steppers  with 
their  code  of  calculated  brutality.  The  strong  have 
got  the  world,  and,  destructive  as  they  are,  it  seems 
impossible  to  break  their  grip  on  it.  About  Henry 
Ford  there  is  at  least  the  attraction  that  he  is  frankly 
out  to  achieve  the  impossible.  Wise  people  are 
entitled  to  laugh  at  him,  but  who  is  wise?  What  less 
than  the  impossible  can  save  the  world  in  this  crisis — 
can  drag  it  back  from  its  rush  to  perdition  under  the 
great  system  of  national  grab  and  put  it  back  on  the 
path  to  civilization.'^  Joan  of  Arc,  prompted  by 
incredible  visions,  and  working  with  the  meanest 
instruments,  accomplished  the  impossible  and  was 
burned  as  a  witch.  Henry  has  had  a  vision  incred- 
ible enough  in  all  sense,  and  is  working  with  instru- 
ments of  a  diverting  whimsicality.  Count  both  these 
facts  as  factors  m  his  favour  as  a  marvel- worker. 
Miracles  are  done,  not  by  material,  but  by  spiritual 
means.  If  Henry  works  one,  it  will  be  in  order  to 
fetch  the  faggots  for  him  as  for  Joan,  for  he  is  striking 
at  the  system  that  dominates  the  world,  and  must  be 
rated  as  a  fool  if  he  fails,  and  if  he  wins,  as  a  wizard. 
But  probably  no  one  will  offer  to  burn  Henry.  He 
is  not  a  Belgian  nor  a  Servian  nor  an  Armenian,  and 
f rightfulness  would  be  wasted  on  him.  He  may  be 
sunk,  but  hardly  burned.  The  chances  are  that  he  is 
not  Tolstoi's  strange  man  from  the  North,  and  that 
he  will  not  cut  much  ice  for  all  his  efforts,  but  he 
gives  us  a  valuable  and  conspicuous  example  of  a  pre- 
posterous man  claiming  his  own  in  a  preposterous 
world.  He  is  no  more  absurd  a  fool  than  the  Kaiser 
or  a  hundred  other  chief  figures  in  the  great  tumult, 
all  striving  with  passion  and  infinite  damage  to  im- 
pose ridiculous  clamps  on  mankind.     As  fools  go. 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  213 

Henry  is  a  wise  one.  He  has  full  as  much  experience 
of  the  world  as  Joan  of  Arc,  and  though  he  has  no 
army,  he  has  a  lot  of  money,  and  he  seems  to  have  the 
kind  of  vision  that  impels  him  to  invite  the  multitude 
to  sit  down  and  be  helped  to  something.  It  was  he 
who  put  the  mob  into  automobile — which  no  one 
thought  possible — and  who  made  that  interesting 
experiment  in  increasing  the  efficiency  of  labour  by 
doubling  up  wages.  He  is  a  helpful-minded  person, 
and  he  is  helpful  now  in  this,  if  nothing  else,  that  he 
has  introduced  into  the  war  the  only  occurrence, 
since  it  started,  at  which  one  can  smile.  If  he  doesn't 
get  the  Nobel  peace  prize,  it  won't  be  for  not  trying, 
nor  yet,  perhaps,  for  not  deserving  it. 


January  6,  1916, 

WE  SHOULD  not  take  it  too  hard  that 
Europe  is  not  pleased  with  us.  Col.  Har- 
vey would  have  Dr.  Wilson  go  abroad 
instead  of  Col.  House  to  learn  what  the  European 
atmosphere  is,  but  that  would  not  help  matters. 
This  country  may  not  properly  regulate  its  be- 
EuropeNot  haviour  by  European  feelings  in  war- 
Pleased  With  time.  In  war-time  men  think  and  feel 
^*  not  so  much  according  to  the  facts   as 

according  to  their  breed.  Individual  Americans 
think  and  feel  about  the  war  according  to  their  breed 
— English,  Irish,  German,  whatever  it  is;  but  the 
policy  of  our  government  should  be  American.  If 
it  is  soundly  American  that  is  all  we  have  a  right  to 
ask. 

But  will  that  satisfy  anybody  in  times  like  these .^^ 
Bless  you,  no!  That  is,  hardly  anybody.  A  few 
America-first  Americans  will  like  it  insofar  as  they 
think  it  sound  or  find  a  profit  in  it,  but  most  of  us 
have  come  long  since  to  be  hyphens  for  the  purposes 
of  this  war — Ally-  or  Teuton-Americans — and  are 
ready,  all  of  us,  to  denounce  the  administration  if  it 
does  not  lean  hard  enough  our  way. 

Probably  that  is  the  most  serious  cause  of  the 
decline  in  President  Wilson's  popularity.  So  far 
as  the  war  in  Europe  was  concerned  he  has  followed, 
according  to  his  lights,  the  course  that  looked  to 
him  best  and  most  proper  for  the  United  States. 
Accordingly  the  Ally-Americans  and  the  German- 
Americans  are  all  down  on  him,  and  Europe  regai'ds 
him  as  a  considerable  failure  as  a  public  man. 

214 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  215 

Perhaps  he  is,  but,  if  so,  he  has  lots  of  company, 
for  Europe  has  not  yet  produced,  since  the  war  began, 
a  pubhc  man  who  is  conceded  to  be  a  success.  The 
feet  of  once-distinguished  public  men  protrude  from 
the  ash-cans  of  all  the  chancellories  of  Europe.  Sir 
Edward  Grey  still  holds  down  his  job,  but  the  effort 
to  oust  Mr.  Asquith  is  just  now  more  than  usually 
active.  All  the  Ally-nations  and  Greece  and  Austria 
and  Turkey  and  most  of  the  neutrals  have  swapped 
ministers,  and  even  we  have  sustained  the  loss  of  Mr. 
Bryan.  Like  as  not  we  would  have  tipped  ?vlr.  Wil- 
son out  before  this  if  it  had  been  possible  to  do  it 
without  a  revolution,  but  as  it  is  we  shall  have  him, 
certainly,  for  another  fourteen  months. 

What  we  shall  think  of  him  a  year  from  next 
March,  heaven  knows,  but  it  is  entirely  possible  that 
his  policy  of  watchful  waiting — if  he  sticks  to  it — 
will  be  a  good  deal  more  popular  then  than  it  is  now. 

Very  able  and  respected  men  insist  that  our  coun- 
try, since  the  war  began,  has  lost  the  opportunity  of 
many  lifetimes  to  do  an  enormous  service  to  the 
world.  Other  persons  of  fair  intelligence  hold  that 
there  was  nothing  much  that  we  could  do  and  that 
Mr.  Wilson  has  done  it  and  thereby  earned  our  grati- 
tude. Both  of  these  views  Y\dll  find  full  expression 
next  June  and  from  then  until  November,  events, 
meanwhile,  marching  rapidly,  no  doubt,  and  shedding 
light  day  by  da^^  on  the  discussion. 

It  is  all  a  blind  business,  terrible,  and  beyond  hu- 
man control.  "No  man,"  says  the  Evening  Sun, 
"may  venture  to  make  phrases  or  open  his  mouth  in 
parley  between  such  spiritual  forces  in  mortal  com- 
bat. The  only  intermediary  is  a  greater  spiritual 
force  which  will  speak  in  Its  own  time." 

Henry  Ford,  it  seems,  took  sick,  and,  yielding  to 
the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  cut  loose  from  his 
pilgrim  band  and  hopes  to  rearrive  in  Detroit  about 


216  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

the  same  time  as  this  number  of  Life.  He  left  means 
of  gratuitious  transportation  for  all  the  pilgrims  in 
case  they  should  conclude  to  return.  It  seems  they 
squabbled  a  good  deal  going  over,  and  he  will  doubt- 
less be  just  as  happy  on  his  way  back  without  their 
companionship. 

While  Henry  was  homeward  bound  The  Skipper 
of  our  Ark  opened  the  window  and  let  out  Col. 
House.  The  Colonel  circled  high  above  the  in- 
quisitive reporters  and  sailed  eastward  on  a  Dutch 
steamer  without  giving  inquirers  any  high  degree  of 
satisfaction,  as  to  the  nature  of  his  quest.  Often, 
however,  we  may  profitably  search  the  Scriptures  for 
light  on  obscure  proceedings  in  contemporary  times. 
It  will  be  recalled  that  when  the  Ark  had  grounded, 
Noah  first  sent  forth  a  raven  which  foraged  back  and 
forth;  then,  later,  a  dove,  which  found  no  rest  for  the 
sole  of  her  foot  and  came  home  to  him  and  was  taken 
in;  then,  later,  the,  dove  again,  which  came  in  in  the 
evening  and  brought  him  in  her  mouth  "an  olive  leaf 
pluckt  off,"  and  presently  the  dove  again  "which 
returned  not  again  to  him  any  more."  Obviously, 
now,  to  the  interpreting  intelligence.  Col.  Harvey 
is  the  raven  coming  back  to  roost  on  our  roof -tree; 
Henry  Ford  is  the  dove  whose  foot  found  no  resting 
place,  and  of  Col.  House  we  may  prayerfully  hope 
that  he  will  bring  back,  this  time,  a  sprig  of  olive, 
and  that  when  he  goes  again  it  may  be  to  a  habit- 
able Europe. 

This  is  the  time  for  armament  talk;  how  much, 
what  kind,  what  cost,  and  how  to  get  the  money. 
However  regenerate  or  however  crippled  Europe  may 
be  after  the  war,  she  is  not  likely  to  continue  long  in  a 
condition  that  will  relieve  us  of  the  obligation  to 
maintain  a  strong  navy  and  very  much  more  exten- 
sive and  reliable  military  forces  than  we  have  at 
present.     If  a  co-operative  arrangement  for  the  pro- 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  217 

tection  of  the  world  follows  the  war,  our  navy  will 
doubtless  be  part  of  the  police  force  to  which  the 
work  will  be  entrusted,  and  it  will  have  to  be  strong 
enough  to  do  its  share.  If  no  such  arrangement 
ensues  it  will  have  to  be  still  stronger.  Either  way 
we  shall  need  more  navy. 

As  to  the  army,  there  is  a  surprising  sentiment  for 
universal  military  training  of  moderate  extent,  to 
give  the  country  a  reasonably  competent  reserve 
force,  and  abate  the  scare  that  we  have  no  adequate 
means  of  repelling  an  invasion.  Compulsory  mili- 
tary training  for  all  our  3^oung  men  is  so  novel  an 
idea  that  it  seems  quite  unreal.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
thoroughly  democratic,  and  it  would  be  valuable  as 
a  discipline,  and  as  a  means  of  welding  our  people  to- 
gether, as  well  as  for  merely  military  purposes. 

Congress  must  be  all  but  bewildered  at  the  idea  of 
proposing  to  the  American  people  plans  so  completely 
foreign  to  their  habits,  and  expenditures  that  they  will 
be  so  reluctant  to  incur.  We  are  sorry  for  Congress. 
It  has  got  a  big,  hard  job  on  its  hands. 


January  20,  1916. 

MR.  BENJAMIN  APTHORP  GOULD,  a  citi- 
zen of  the  United  States  who  lives  in  To- 
ronto, sadly  confesses  to  a  poor  opinion  of 
President  Wilson.  He  is  not  alone  in  this  feeling, 
but  he  is  more  definite  than  most  of  his  brethren 
Berating  who  share  it.  He  thinks  Mr.  Wilson  "has 
Mr.  v/ilson  utterly  failed  his  own  people  and  the  peo- 
ple of  the  world."  He  charges  him  with  weakness 
and  failure  of  vision  which  have  incalculably  injured 
our  nation  and  our  world;  with  stooping  to  an  un- 
worthy and  unsuccessful  attempt  to  play  party 
politics  with  the  destinies  of  the  world;  with  being 
responsible  for  the  degradation  of  his  country  and  for 
making  it  despised  by  the  world;  with  responsibility 
for  the  failure  of  other  neutral  nations  to  rise  to  the 
needs  of  the  greatest  world  crisis  ever  known,  and 
for  the  protraction  of  the  war  at  least  a  year  longer 
than  was  necessary;  with  responsibility  for  the  entry 
into  the  war  of  Turkey  and  Bulgaria,  and  all  result- 
ing miseries,  including  the  Armenian  horrors  and  the 
death  or  wounding  of  at  least  five  million  persons. 

"Never,"  says  Mr.  Gould,  "has  such  opportunity 
to  serve  mankind  been  offered  to  a  man :  never  has  a 
man  failed  so  miserably." 

One  may  wonder  that  Mr.  Gould  did  not  include 
in  his  charges  Mr.  Wilson's  responsibility  for  the 
Panama  canal  slides,  but  perhaps  the  bill  seemed 
heavy  enough  without  that.  The  trouble  with  it  is, 
it  is  so  inferential.  Mr.  Gould  may  be  right  in 
thinking  that  Mr.  Wilson  might  have  stopped  the 
war  before  this  if  he  had  had  the  grit  to  use  his 

218 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  219 

powers.  That  is  conceivable,  but  it  is  far  from  being 
a  fact.  The  country  seemed  ready  to  go  any  length 
with  him  after  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania,  but, 
after  all,  what  might  have  happened  is  always  matter 
of  opinion.  If  Woodrow  Wikon  had  behaved  as 
Cromwell,  Andrew  Jackson,  T.  Roosevelt,  John 
L.  Sullivan,  Genghis  Khan,  or  Julius  Caesar  would 
(possibly)  have  behaved  in  his  plajce.  Mars  might 
have  quit  his  mischief  and  slunk  back  abashed  into 
liis  hole.  But  we  don't  know  what  would  have  hap- 
pened. The  war  might  have  stopped  or  it  might 
have  gone  on  all  the  hotter.  All  we  know  is  that 
Woodrow  Wilson,  instead  of  behaving  like  Genghis 
Khan,  behaved  lilve  Woodrow  Wilson. 

Was  that  so  great  a  fault  .^ 

Did  we  elect  Mr.  Wilson  President  with  the  notion 
that  he  was  going  to  behave  like  Genghis  KJian,  or 
like  W.  Wilson.^  ^ 

We  expected  him  to  behave  Kke  Wilson. 

If  he  had  behaved  lilve  some  one  else — say  Col. 
Roosevelt — he  would  not  have  been  playing  fair 
with  us.  We  had  a  chance  to  re-elect  Mr.  Roosevelt, 
and  declined,  and  chose  Mr.  Wilson.  All  we  had  a 
right  to  expect  of  Mr.  Wilson  was  that  he  should 
be  true  to  himself.  If  he  sincerely  does  his  best  for 
the  country,  that  is  all  we  can  ask  of  him.  If  his 
best  is  not  good  enough,  that  is  our  misfortune. 

Of  course,  Mr.  Wilson  has  done  his  best;  his  level 
best.  We  don't  at  all  agree  with  Mr.  Gould  that  he 
has  played  party  politics  in  a  world  crisis.  He  has 
done  his  best.  If  he  hasn't  met  the  expectations  of 
Mr.  Gould  and  of  quite  a  lot  of  gentlemen  who  live 
and  vate  in  the  United  States — if  he  lacks  personality, 
or  magnetism,  or  force,  or  whatever  faculty  it  is 
that  carries  people  along  and  makes  them  think  he  is 
right — that  is  bad,  of  course,  but  it  is  not  so  much  liis 
fault  as  the  fault  of  us  who  picked  him  out  to  be 


220  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

President.  Not  even  Mr.  Gould,  not  even  the  Trib- 
une, suggests  that  Mr.  Wilson  is  a  traitor,  and  has 
purposely  misconducted  his  country. 

Mr.  Gould's  real  cliarge  is  a  charge  against  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  American  de- 
mocracy. His  real  complaint  is  that  when  a  sudden 
emergency  catches  us  with  an  unsuitable  President 
we  cannot  get  rid  of  him,  as  we  might  of  an  unsuccess- 
ful general,  until  his  term  is  out.  His  real  com- 
plaint is  that  we  have  no  continuing  policies,  military, 
naval,  foreign,  or  any  other  kind;  that  we  are  con- 
stantly shifting  the  control  of  our  enormously  im- 
portant and  complicated  political  and  governmental 
affairs  from  tried  hands  into  untried  hands;  that  our 
government  was  contrived  so  as  not  to  run  away 
with  us;  that  it  is  such  a  government  as  we  wish  to  see 
Germany  adopt — one  that  cannot  be  committed  to 
any  vital  proceeding  without  a  huge  preliminary 
popular  discussion,  and  the  previous  consent  of  a 
hallful  of  legislators  who  may  or  may  not  know  their 
business. 

For  a  green  hand,  v/ithout  extended  experience  of 
men  or  affairs  beyond  the  limits  of  a  college  and  a 
college  town,  Mr.  Wilson  has  done  remarkably  well. 
We  didn't  choose  him  to  steer  us  through  a  world 
crisis :  we  chose  him  chiefly  to  restrain  cur  abler  citi- 
zens from  hogging  all  the  money.  He  worked  faith- 
fully at  that  employment,  and  then  when  the  world 
crisis  came  along  he  made  the  best  fist  of  it  that  he 
could.  His  record  as  a  pinch-hitter  is  not  closed  yet. 
He  may  be  just  a  mite  less  crazy  than  we  are;  he  may 
be  doing  better  than  we  think — have  done  better 
than  we  know — be  destined  to  come  out  far  better 
than  we  hope.  But  if  he  isn't  a  good  hand  in  a  world 
crisis,  it's  our  misfortune,  and  if  he  cannot  quit  and 
we  cannot  replace  him  till  our  constitutional  time- 
lock  permits,  that  is  the  fault  of  our  fathers  in  de- 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATaON  221 

signing  our  government  without  a  provision  for  recall 
of  Presidents,  and  our  fault  in  not  improving  on  their 
work. 

There  is  no  special  objection  to  any  gentleman, 
Canadian  or  American,  objurgating  about  Mr.  Wil- 
son according  to  his  feelings,  but  objurgation  of  that 
sort  does  not  get  us  very  far  ahead.  Mr.  Wilson 
is  doing  his  best;  a  large  proportion  of  the  country 
is  still  satisfied  with  his  performance;  we  can't  swap 
leaders  for  another  year,  and  not  then  unless  the 
country  wants  to,  and  since  whatever  is  done  for  us 
in  the  world  crisis  for  a  year  to  come  must  be  done 
with  complicity  of  the  present  administration,  it  be- 
comes us  to  view  Mr.  Wilson,  if  not  with  enthusiasm, 
at  least  with  an  effort  at  composure.  If  we  want 
Germany  and  Russia  to  be  democratized  it  becomes 
us  to  bear  with  democracy  ourselves. 

If  Mr.  Gould  can't  bear  it  to  wait,  it  is  easy  for 
him,  already  a  resident  of  Toronto,  to  swap  fealties 
and  become  a  Canadian.  Then  he  will  know  where 
he  is,  his  duty  wdil  be  clear,  he  will  be  purged  of  all 
the  pains  of  neutrality,  and  we  shall  all  admire  and 
envy  him.  Then,  in  company  with  brethren  of  his 
own  breed,  he  need  not  bother  any  more  about  Mr. 
Wilson,  or  suffer  shame  because  of  what  he  doesn't 
do. 

But  we  can't  quit.  He  have  got  to  see  these 
States  and  their  President  through  the  world  crisis  of 
1916.  Our  credit  is  pledged;  our  money  is  up,  and 
whether  this  is  the  seventh  inning  that's  playing  now, 
or  the  fifth  or  the  ninth,  we  see  nothing  for  it  but  to 
sit  tight  and  see  the  game  out. 


January  ^0^  1916. 

WAR  news  comes  in  nowadays  to  suit  the 
taste.  No  customer  who  wants  bad 
news  need  go  away  unsatisfied,  unless, 
perhaps,  he  wants  it  about  the  French.  As  to  all 
the  other  combatants  it  is  to  be  had  in  quantities  to 
German  Peace  suit,  as  that  the  British  go  from  disaster 
Hopes  iq  disaster,  that  the  Russians  are  all  in 

and  their  armies  have  no  oflScers,  that  the  Italians 
are  running  out  of  money  and  are  half-hearted  any- 
how, that  the  Austrians  are  not  worth  talking  about, 
and  that  the  Germans  are  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy 
and  are  very  tired  of  the  war. 

This  last  is  probably  true.  No  doubt  the  Germans 
are  very  tired  of  the  war  and,  being  ahead,  would 
like  to  quit  on  some  good  basis  which  would  ease 
them  and  bind  up  their  deep  financial  wounds.  No 
doubt  that  is  why  they  show,  just  now,  a  disposition 
to  be  polite  to  us,  and  agree,  if  possible,  to  Mr. 
Lansing's  demands  about  the  Ancona,  the  Lusitania, 
the  Persia,  and  the  rest.  Only  gentle  language  comes 
over  just  now  from  Germany.  That  is  good  as  far 
as  it  goes.  Herr  Dernburg  is  again  quoted,  this  time 
as  telling  his  brethren  in  a  lecture  in  Berlin  that  it  is 
a  mistake  to  think  of  us  as  pure  materialists;  that  we 
carry  a  great  deal  of  moral  baggage;  that  we  are  anti- 
militarists,  and  that  the  American  woman  is  deeply 
and  simply  religious  and  will  not  bring  up  her  son  to 
be  a  soldier. 

Our  German  brothers  seem  to  be  marking  time 
till  they  see  if  peace  is  going  to  hatch  out.  One  hears 
that  some  of  them  a  month  ago  expected  peace  quite 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  223 

confidently,  for  reasons  undisclosed,  by  March.  If 
they  have  any  such  expectation  and  anything  to 
base  it  on,  it  explains  their  politeness.  To  come  out 
of  the  war  on  a  friendly  footing  with  the  United  States 
is  highly  desirable  for  Germany.  One  fat  friend 
would  be  convenient  for  her,  either  for  purposes  of 
pillage,  of  banking,  or  of  trade.  But  for  us  it  is 
desirable — yes,  vitally — that  the  end  of  the  war 
should  leave  us  on  terms  of  close  co-operation  with 
England.  German  good  will  towards  us  is  a  luxury, 
but  in  our  present  state  of  armament,  British  good- 
will is  a  necessity.  Without  it,  the  goose-step  for  us 
at  German  convenience.  When  peace  is  talked, 
therefore,  what  weight  we  have  must  go  into  the 
scale  to  make  a  peace  that  shall  satisfy  Great  Britain 
and  her  allies.  No  other  kind  of  peace  would  be  safe 
for  us. 

Of  course,  the  Germans  know  that,  but  whether 
they  think  we  know  it  is  a  question.  It  sounds  funny 
when  Dernburg  says  our  women  will  not  raise  their 
boys  to  be  soldiers,  but  current  proceedings  in  Con- 
gress afford  a  good  deal  of  support  to  that  point  of 
view.  At  present  we  are  in  no  condition  to  take  care 
of  ourselves,  and  count  on  Great  Britain,  including 
Canada,  to  come  between  us  and  trouble  in  any 
sudden  emergency.  Friends  of  Great  Britain  here 
find  some  comfort  in  that  thought,  but  the  situation 
is  so  unsuitable  to  a  country  the  size  of  this  as  to  war- 
rant the  prompt  passage  in  Congress,  by  the  aid  of 
Republican  votes,  of  the  best  preparedness  "propo- 
sition that  the  combined  gifts  of  all  the  live-wires  in 
Congress  and  the  Cabinet  can  compound. 


January  27,  1916. 

MR.  WILSON,"  complains  the  Fatherland,  "is 
practically  an  Englishman." 
That   is,    he   speaks   English,    thinks   in 
English,  and  is  of  British  descent. 

Fifty  or  sixty  millions  of  the  present  inhabitants 
Hold  On  of  this  country  are  open  to  the  same  ob- 
JohnBulli*  jection.  As  seen  by  the  Fatherland,  they 
must  look  to  be  "practically  Englishmen." 

It  is  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  since  it  has  been 
openly  popular  in  this  country  to  be  "practically 
English."  A  trouble  that  happened  in  the  last  cen- 
tury but  one,  when  we  set  up  housekeeping,  made  it 
necessary  for  our  fathers  to  accentuate  the  fact  that 
they  were  not  Englishmen  but  Americans.  Early  in 
the  last  century  there  had  to  be  some  reaccentuation 
of  this  political  truth,  and  more  of  it  a  half -century 
later.  A  healthy  interest  in  continental  self-de- 
velopment induced  a  jealousy  of  the  disposition  to 
pattern  our  tastes  and  manners  after  the  model  that 
interested  us  the  most  and  was  the  most  natural  for 
us  to  follow.  The  great  Irish  immigration  in  the 
middle  of  the  last  century  presently  furnished  a  new 
political  motive  for  the  fostering  of  this  sentiment. 
In  those  days  the  Irish  disapproval  of  England  had  a 
good  case,  and  one  that  had  to  be  respected  by  just 
people,  even  though  they  were  careless  of  the  Irish 
vote.  And  so  it  happened,  for  one  reason  or  another, 
for  a  century  and  a  half  that  the  great  mass  of  Ameri- 
cans were  always  on  their  guard  not  to  be  too  great 
admirers  or  lovers  of  their  blood  brethren,  but  to 

*  From  the  John  Bull  number  of  Life. 

224 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  225 

stand  on  their  own  feet  and  be  their  independent 
selves. 

But  nature  is  not  to  be  balked  by  mere  politics. 
Deep  ealleth  unto  deep  and  like  to  like.  Race  is 
race,  though  seas  divide  and  interests  conflict. 
Quarrels  heat  the  blood,  but  do  not  change  it.  Jew 
is  Jew,  German  is  German,  Irishman  is  Irishman, 
and  what  is  born  English  lives  English,  as  a  rule,  on 
whatever  soil  and  under  whatever  flag.  A  crisis,  a 
shiver  up  the  back,  and  you  know  what  was  bom  in 
you  and  who  at  the  pinch  is  with  you  and  you  with 
him.  In  spite  of  all  jealousies  and  rivalries,  the  ties 
between  the  British  Isles  and  these  States  have  grown 
closer  and  closer  as  the  distance  between  them  has 
diminished.  Literature  has  constantly  fed  and  inter- 
marriage strengthened  them.  Out  in  Samoa  in  a 
hurricane  the  cheers  of  American  seamen  on  the 
stranded  Trenton  reached  gratefully  to  the  British 
Calliope,  struggling  past  to  the  open  sea,  and  Ameri- 
can blood  ran  warmer  at  the  story.  A  little  later, 
in  Manila  Bay,  we  found  a  friend.  Things  have  gone 
better  between  the  Union  Jack  and  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  since  '98. 

The  backbone  of  the  United  States  is  made  of  pre- 
cisely the  same  materials  as  the  backbone  of  the 
British  Empire.  It  is  English,  Scotch,  and  Irish. 
The  language,  literature,  and  political  ideals  of  the 
United  States  are  of  the  same  derivation.  That  is 
why  in  this  world  crisis  we  have  seen  things  as  we 
have.  It  has  not  been  that  the  British  propaganda 
has  captured  us.  It  has  been  that,  with  the  minds 
we  have,  we  could  not  see  the  case  otherwise  than 
we  have  seen  it.  We  have  been  for  the  Allies  be- 
cause we  were  born  so;  born  to  the  faith  that  is  in 
them  and  to  faith  in  them  who  hold  that  faith;  born 
to  the  duty  which  they  have  accepted — to  keep  lib- 
erty alive  in  the  world  and  maintain  it  against  the 


226  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

domination  of  calculated  and  machine-made  effi- 
ciency. 

To  us  of  the  English  stock  the  Great  War  seems  to 
bring  a  summons  to  wear  our  English  derivation 
with  somewhat  more  assertion.  The  Irish  love 
Ireland  openly  and  are  not  expected  to  apologize; 
American  Scots  show  an  open  kindness  for  Scotland; 
Germans  love  their  fatherland  under  any  sun.  Is  it 
only  to  be  England  that  men  sprung  from  her  loins 
may  not  care  for.? 

Who  says  that?  Surely  not  we  whose  English 
derivation  is  all  the  root  we  have,  who  are  lawful 
heirs  of  a  tradition  and  literature  the  greatest,  all 
counted,  since  Rome  and  Greece.  We  have  been 
too  modest.  Poll  us  in  these  States  and  we  are  a 
greater  company  by  much  than  all  the  rest,  the 
longest  planted  here,  and  surely  not  the  least  power- 
ful or  least  worthy. 

Who  is  the  anchor  at  the  end  of  the  Allies'  rope  in 
the  great  tug-of-war?  Who  but  our  blood-cousin, 
John  Bull!  There  he  stands,  with  planted  feet, 
sweating  and  sore  beset;  his  muscles  lame,  but  holding 
on. 

Hold  on,  John  Bull,  hold  on!  There  are  those 
across  the  seas  who  care  for  you;  who  hold  with  you 
now  in  daylight  and  in  dark  so  far  as  yet  they  may, 
and  will  gladly  hold  with  you  in  face  of  all  comers 
when  Fate  permits  it.     Hold  on,  John  Bull! 


February  S,  1916. 

IN  THE  matter  of  training  armies  for  future  battles 
of  civilization  against  Kultur  (if  necessary),  and 
for  the  defense  of  American  soil  and  to  emphasize 
American  opinions,  and  for  all  other  suitable  and 
lawful  purposes,  the  National  Security  League  is 
„        J       for  going  along  with  Mr.  Garrison  as  far 

rrevareaness         i  ^  ,    , 

as  he  can  get  to  go. 

What  the  League  wants  is  "  an  adequate  navy  and 
a  national  army  founded  upon  a  system  of  universal, 
obligatory,  military  training,"  and  "wholly  under 
the  discipline  and  control  of  the  national  authorities." 
Mr.  Garrison's  plan  doesn't  go  as  far  as  that.  It  pro- 
vides for  a  moderate  increase  of  the  regular  army,  for 
the  training  of  a  volunteer  reserve  force  under  Federal 
control,  and  for  the  accumulation  of  a  proper  supply 
of  war  material.  It  provides  for  spending  a  lot  of 
money,  and  it  looks  to  the  gradual  acquisition  of 
a  reserve  of  nearly  a  million  more  or  less  trained 
men. 

Good,  at  least  pretty  good,  as  far  as  it  goes,  says 
the  Security  League.  Let's  get  in  behind  Mr.  Gar- 
rison and  see  what  he  can  do. 

So  say  Mr.  Root,  Mr.  Stimson,  Mr.  Wickersham, 
Mr.  Wright,  and  Mr.  Bacon,  lately  Republican 
Cabinet  officers.  They  see  in  Mr.  Garrison  a  Secre- 
tary of  War  who  is  trying  zealously  to  put  the  coun- 
try in  a  state  of  defense.  They  see  good  in  his  plan, 
and  though  it  does  not  satisfy  them,  they  are  ready 
to  back  it  as  the  most  feasible  first  step. 

But  they  seem  to  back  it  with  very  moderate 
confidence.     Mr.  Stimson  admitted  that  he  had  no 

227 


228  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

idea  that  Congress  would  do  anything  Hke  as  much  as 
Mr.  Garrison  wanted. 

Nevertheless,  the  backing  of  these  leading  Re- 
publicans is  very  valuable.  It  helps  to  take  the 
armament  question  out  of  party  politics.  It  will 
help  to  put  behind  President  Wilson,  in  the  effort 
he  is  about  to  make  in  behalf  of  national  defense, 
some  votes  in  place  of  the  Pacifist  and  Bryanite  votes 
that  he  will  lose. 

Preparedness  is  a  very  big  issue.  Universal-obliga- 
tory military  training  of  our  available  young  men 
under  control  and  discipline  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment is  an  absolutely  novel  idea  to  the  people  of  this 
country.  Unless  they  are  suddenly  and  badly  scared 
they  will  not  accept  it  with  a  rush.  They  will 
want  to  talk  it  over  and  think  it  over,  and  have 
all  the  ins  and  outs  of  it  expounded  to  them,  and 
meanwhile  they  are  likely  to  prefer  to  try  out  Mr. 
Garrison's  plan  of  voluntary  service.  That  may 
work  for  the  moment  if  Congress  concludes  to  try  it, 
because  there  is  a  considerable  anxiety  about  the 
safety  of  the  country,  and  a  good  many  good  and 
able  men  will  work  hard  to  put  through  any  plan 
that  promises  to  begin  at  once  the  training  of  a  re- 
serve force.  Possibly  suflScient  interest  can  be  stirred 
up  in  these  war  times  to  induce  the  enlistment  of  the 
annual  133,000  young  men  the  Garrison  plan  calls  for. 
If  it  is  a  mere  emergency  plan  to  tide  the  country 
over  a  perilous  season  preliminary  to  the  binding  of 
the  Adversary  for  a  thousand  years  and  the  reign 
of  universal  peace,  the  Garrison  plan  may  do  the 
whole  job.  But  if  the  scarred  and  battered  nations 
of  this  suffering  world  are  going  gradually,  after 
the  present  orgy,  to  slip  back  into  their  old  habits 
of  carrying  all  the  weapons  they  can  pile  on,  for 
fear  somebody  will  get  the  drop  on  them,  then  the 
democratic  universal  obligatory  system  is  what  we 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  229 

must  come  to,  though  we  may  have  a  mild  form  of 

it. 

And  it  might  do  us  a  vast  deal  of  good;  enough, 
possibly,  to  be  worth  all  its  cost.  We  are  well  used 
to  pay  out  money  for  education  in  this  country. 
We  pay  out  half  a  billion  dollars  a  year  for  common 
schools  alone.  Considered  as  a  form  of  education, 
this  universal-obligatory  military  training  would  have 
a  value  well  worth  computing.  It  would  give  our 
young  men  an  annual  change  of  environment  and 
association  for  several  months,  during  several  of 
their  most  impressionable  years;  give  them  exercises 
suitable  for  their  physical  development,  teach  them 
manners,  obedience,  and  other  useful  branches,  and 
give  them  new  thoughts  and  ideas.  Most  of  that 
would  be  wholesome.  If  the  Garrison  plan  goes 
through  and  the  response  is  sufficient  to  give  it  a  fair 
trial,  we  shall  be  better  able  to  judge  how  wholesome 
and  valuable  it  is.  But,  anyhow,  we  would  expect 
to  get  out  of  universal-obligatory  military  service  a 
great  deal  more  than  merely  national  defense.  We 
should  expect  to  get  a  national  tonic  as  good  for  us  in 
the  regular  years  of  peace  as  in  the  hypothetical 
emergency  of  war. 

We  want  to  be  not  only  safe,  but  sane.  If  obliga- 
tory service  is  going  to  make  us  war-mad,  we  don't 
want  it.  We  might  as  well  die  shot  by  conquerors  as 
die  crazy.  But  if  it  can  be  demonstrated  that  it 
would  increase  our  national  sanity — relieve  us  from 
vague  terrors;  make  us  more  orderly  and  less  selfish; 
make  us  think  better  and  behave  better — that  would 
be  a  very  long  mark  in  its  favour. 

In  France  it  seems  to  have  worked  that  way.  The 
French  took  up  with  obligatory  service — a  great  deal 
more  of  it  than  we  should  have — for  purpose  of  na- 
tional self-defense.  It  has  not  made  them  war-mad, 
neither  has  France  become,  like  Germany,  a  military 


230  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

aristocracy.  We  admire  the  character  of  the  French 
people — their  fortitude  and  constancy — and  we  ad- 
mire their  democratic  regime.  We  read  a  great  deal 
of  the  brotherly  relations  between  officers  and  men, 
an  excellent  sentiment  of  good  will  without  prejudice 
to  discipline.  If  democratic  France  is  able  to  work 
in  the  universal-obligatory  system  with  advantage 
to  democratic  feeling,  and  without  developing  any 
crazy  lust  for  conquest,  we  might  hope  to  do  as  well. 

The  papers  quote  College  President  Harry  Garfield 
as  saying  that  if  we  have  a  big,  permanent  army  our 
government  will  necessarily  become  a  military  dicta- 
torship, and  our  tenderly  fondled  liberties  will  go 
bust.  He  thinks  "we  ought  not  to  have  a  larger 
military  establishment  than  we  need  to  police  our 
country  and  defend  our  shores." 

The  danger  of  our  getting  more  is  small  and  re- 
mote; the  danger  of  our  not  getting  that  is  imminent. 
Get  in,  please,  Dr.  Garfield,  back  of  Mr.  Wilson ! 


February  S,  1916. 

GREAT  acquirements  of  knowledge  (except 
in  the  case  of  T.  R.)  make  for  hesitation  in 
action. 

That  is  where  our  good  Henry  Ford  has  an  advan- 
tage. He  does  not  know  enough  to  hinder  him 
Knouiedge  from  doing  anything  that  he  thinks  of. 
and  imjpadse  Jt  is  much  the  same  with  Helen  Keller 
and  her  unqualified  social  and  political  assertions. 
She  knows  enough  to  make  them,  but  not  enough  to 
qualify  them.  She  lives  in  an  imagined  world,  and 
so,  considerably,  does  Henry. 

There  is  a  charm  of  other-worldliness  about  both 
of  them.  We  get  so  tired  of  the  blunders  of  the  know- 
it-alls  that  the  extravagances  of  Helen  and  Henry  are 
soothing  to  us.  Neither  of  them  has  worldly  wisdom 
enough  to  balk  at  anything  that  looks  like  the  leading 
of  the  spirit. 

Theodore  has  some  of  the  same  sort  of  charm.  If 
a  thing  looks  good  to  him  he  does  it.  He  hates 
to  let  an  impulse  die  unacted,  especially  if  it  is  a  gal- 
lant impulse.  We  ought  all  to  be  like  that,  because 
gallant  impulses  are  precious,  but  most  of  us  get 
broken  of  acting  on  them  because  the  world  is  so  full 
of  hard  or  stupid  objects  that  one  hits  whenever  he 
skips  the  beaten  path.  We  get  cowled  into  discretion. 
It  is  nast}^;  the  main  justification  of  it  being  that  per- 
sons actuated  by  gallant  impulses  are  apt  to  collide 
not  only  with  dolts  and  posts,  but  (very  much)  with 
one  another,  whereas,  even  on  the  beaten  path,  you 
get  somewhere  if  you  keep  moving. 


231 


February  10,  1916, 

There  is  something  that  the  American  people  love  better  than 
they  love  peace.  They  love  the  principles  upon  which  their  po- 
litical life  is  founded.  They  are  ready  to  fight  for  the  vindica- 
tion of  their  character  and  of  their  honour. 

SO  PRESIDENT  WILSON  in  his  speech  in  New 
York,  the  first  of  his  speeches  in  behalf  of 
strengthening  our  military  and  naval  forces. 

It  is  a  rehef  to  have  him  feel  that  it  is  time  to  give 
emphasis  to  this  view. 

Americans  "Nobody  scriously  supposes,"  he  said. 
Ready  to  "that  the  United  States  needs  to  fear  an 
Fight         invasion  of  its  own  territory. ' 

He  is  mistaken  about  that.  A  lot  of  people  sup- 
pose that  very  thing,  and  so  far  as  expert  testimony 
is  backing,  they  have  got  it.  They  think  we  need 
to  fear  it  with  a  lively,  penetrating  scare,  because 
though  not  immediately  likely,  and  not  remotely 
likely  if  we  wake  up,  it  is  entirely  possible  in  time  if 
we  don't  wake  up. 

More  than  a  year  had  passed,  Mr.  Wilson  said, 
since  he  told  Congress  that  this  question  of  military 
preparation  was  not  a  pressing  question.  Since  then, 
because  of  the  rush  of  circumstances  and  great 
changes  in  the  world,  he  had  changed  his  mind  and 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  pressing. 

We  hope  he  will  also  change  his  mind  about  the  pos- 
sibility of  invasion.  He  is  about  a  year  late  in  calling 
for  an  army,  but  he  is  calling  for  it  now  with  earnest- 
ness, and  if  we  get  one  we  may  still  get  along.  But 
for  a  President  to  be  a  year  late  in  realizing  the  pos- 
sibility that  the  country  may  be  invaded  might  in- 

232 


THE  DIAEY  OF  A  NATION  233 

volve  us  in  appalling  suflFerings  and  humiliations. 
After  the  fire  every  one  realizes  that  he  ought  to 
have  been  insured,  but  the  folks  who  get  on  best  are 
those  who  not  only  take  out  insurance  before  the  fire, 
but  have  some  extinguishers  ready  when  it  breaks  out. 

Perhaps  we  take  life  too  seriously,  and  let  our  at- 
tention be  too  much  diverted  to  transitory  matters 
like  making  money,  and  having  beds  to  sleep  in  and 
tight  roofs  and  food  and  bathrooms  and  grandchil- 
dren and  self-government.  If  one  takes  the  long 
view  that  begins  in  Genesis,  or  earlier,  and  runs  out 
of  sight  in  the  Apocalypse,  these  creature  concerns 
don't  matter  much.  Everybody  says,  and  has  always 
been  saying,  that  the  world  will  go  to  pot  sooner  or 
later  with  contents  and  surface  furnishings  complete, 
but  if  we  wish  to  live  comfortably  on  it  while  it  lasts 
we  have  to  keep  awake  part  of  the  time,  mind  what 
is  going  on,  and  keep  our  mechanisms  oiled  against 
the  time  when  we  shall  see  something  coming  down 
the  road  that  we  shall  want  to  stop. 

Suitable  to  the  time!"  exclaimed  Mr.  Wilson. 
Does  anybody  understand  the  time.^^" 

No,  sir.  Nobody  understands  it.  We  observe 
that  this  is  a  very  sick  world,  and  that  kingdom- 
come  is  being  piled  on  Bally-hoo,  and  that  a  lot  more 
has  got  to  happen  before  the  creases  smooth  out  of 
Creation's  brow.  We  noticed  before  the  war  that 
there  was  great  restlessness,  particularly  among 
women;  that  insanity  was  increasing  in  most  coun- 
tries at  an  enormous  rate,  and  that  something  vital 
seemed  to  be  wrong.  We  observe  certain  superficial 
troubles,  like  the  rise  of  Germany  and  German 
ambition,  and  we  think  that  efficiency  and  machinery 
have  run  away  with  human  life.  But  beyond  that 
we  don't  seem  to  go.  We  see  mankind  throwing 
these  terrible  fits,  and  hope  there  will  be  something 
left  when  they  are  over,  but  we  think  the  poison 


234  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

that  caused  tliem  has  got  to  exhaust  its  power  before 
they  can  stop,  and  we  don't  know  precisely  what  the 
poison  is  nor  how  much  of  it  still  remains  in  the  mun- 
dane system. 

If  nations  have  got  to  be  broken  of  hogging  there 
may  first  have  to  be  a  great  elimination  of  individual 
h(;ggishness,  and  perhaps  that  is  going  on  with  all 
these  horrible,  incidental  pangs  to  so  many  innocent 
and  kindly  people.  But  the  whole  trouble  is  obscure, 
and  the  proper  treatment  for  it  is  guesswork;  and 
for  you,  Mr.  President,  to  go  out  on  the  road  and 
preach  Johnny-get-your-gun  to  the  Middle  West 
looks  as  nearly  suitable  as  any  treatment  we  know  of. 

While  Mr.  Wilson  is  poking  up  the  country  on  the 
subject  of  military  preparation.  Col.  Roosevelt 
faithfully  pokes  it  up  on  the  subject  of  Mr.  Wilson. 
Mr.  Wilson  rests  on  Sunday,  but  not  the  Colonel. 
On  January  30th,  while  Mr.  Wilson  was  renewing  his 
ginger  in  Cleveland,  preliminary  to  ^ve  Monday 
speeches,  the  Colonel  made  a  ferocious  appeal  to 
three  thousand  citizens  of  Brooklyn,  wherein  he 
disclosed  to  them  that  everything  the  present  ad- 
ministration had  done  in  foreign  affairs  was  rotten. 

When  you  try  to  follow  the  Colonel  in  detail  in  one 
of  his  wake-up-the-people  speeches  it  is  rather  hard 
going,  but  when  you  look  at  his  gesticulating  figure 
as  part  of  the  national  landscape  it's  a  fine  bit  of 
movement  and  helps  the  picture.  Mr.  Wilson  told 
his  listeners  in  New  York  not  to  be  satisfied  with  lis- 
tening to  him,  but  to  go  out  and  preach  preparation. 
Col.  Roosevelt  is  his  promptest  responder.  The 
details  don't  matter,  says  Mr.  Wilson;  get  a  move  on 
the  people!  The  Colonel  is  trying  to  do  it,  and  he 
tries  hard,  and  will  keep  on. 


February  17,  1916. 

IT  IS  just  about  eight  years  since  Mr.  Roosevelt 
was  quoted  as  saying,  "If  they  don't  take  Taft 
they'll  get  me." 
They  took  Taft. 
One  might  imagine  him  now  as  saying,  "If  they 

M   Roo     li    ^^^'^  S^^  ready  they'll  get  me." 

Perhaps  they  wouldn't,  for  Mr.  Roose- 
velt does  not  seem  like  a  strong  candidate  this  year, 
but  he  has  stood  conspicuously  forward  as  an  advo- 
cate of  military  and  naval  preparation  in  a  world 
crisis,  and  if  it  had  continued  to  seem  like  a  case  of 
getting  it  through  him  or  going  without,  every  day 
would  have  added  to  his  political  strength. 

It  is  astonishing  what  the  country  owes  to  Mr. 
Roosevelt:  First  of  all  an  immense  entertainment; 
then  his  own  administration  of  seven  years  and  a 
half;  then  the  selection  of  Mr.  Taft  and  his  adminis- 
tration; then,  a  good  deal,  the  election  of  Mr.  Wilson 
and  what  we  have  had  from  him.  If  he  is  a  cause 
now  of  Mr.  Wilson's  conversion  to  preparedness,  it 
is  only  that  things  are  happening  about  as  usual. 
He  is  like  a  handball  player  with  our  national  politics 
as  his  ball.  He  bangs  it  against  the  wall  and  swats 
it  again  as  it  comes  back,  always  ready  to  get  the  ball 
from  any  lagging  opponent.  He  proclaims  at  times 
his  deep  disgust  with  the  result  of  his  efforts  to  serve 
the  country,  but  he  never  lets  up. 

If  the  danger  of  Roosevelt  back  in  the  White 
House  is  the  peril  that  has  stirred  up  Mr.  Wilson 
to  hard  thinking  and  his  recent  exertions,  it  is  new 
evidence  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  value  as  a  political  asset. 

235 


236  THE  DIAHY  OF  A  NATION 

Long  may  he  wave  and  rage  and  sweat  and  swat. 
He  is  our  best  insurance  against  dry  rot;  our  scourge 
of  the  sluggish;  tail-twister  of  our  mules,  and  prod  of 
our  pedagogues.  When  things  get  so  blocked  that 
there  is  danger  of  recalling  him,  the  gong  strikes  for  a 
real  effort,  and  the  chariot  of  state  creaks  on.  If 
we  are  not  to  have  an  active  national  conscience, 
praise  God  that  there  is  left  to  us  an  active  national 
bugaboo. 

Mr.  Wilson  made  good  speeches;  they  were  well 
received  and  should  have  good  results.  He  came 
out  finally  for  the  ablest  navy  in  the  world,  which 
seems  rather  more  than  we  need.  Nevertheless,  any 
morning  we  may  read  that  the  German  navy  has 
finally  come  out  of  cold  storage  and  that  the  British 
navy  has  disputed  with  it  and  that  our  navy  has 
moved  up  one  or  two  places  towards  the  top.  If  the 
relative  ability  of  our  navy  should  be  suddenly  in- 
creased in  that  fashion  it  would  be  interesting,  of 
course.  Yet  it  would  send  us  scrambling  to  the  ship- 
yards to  build  more  of  everything,  for  a  serious  weak- 
ening of  the  British  navy  would  bring  us  sudden  and 
serious  responsibilities.  This  would  be  by  no  means 
a  safer  world  for  us  with  the  British  navy  crippled, 
but  by  a  vast  deal  the  contrary.  We  might  need  at 
once  what  Mr.  Wilson  called  for  in  St.  Louis — the 
most  powerful  navy  in  the  world. 

Meanwhile,  if  Mr.  Wilson  thinks  the  country  is  in 
danger  and  wants  more  navy,  will  he  please  push 
construction  of  the  ships  voted  by  the  last  Congress. 
One  reads  that  no  work  has  yet  been  done  on  the  big 
ones;  that  the  Department  which  is  Mr.  Daniels,  or 
Congress  or  somebody,  will  not  permit  them  to  be 
built  in  private  yards,  and  that  no  government  yard 
is  yet  ready  to  undertake  them. 

The  intentions  of  the  All-Wise  about  Europe  are 
still  obscure,  but  Turkey  seems  to  be  getting  hers. 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  237 

She  did  not  let  the  Germans  in  for  fun,  but  judging 
from  reports  she  is  enjoying  the  consequences  even 
less  than  she  expected. 

It  may  be  some  consolation  to  the  Armenians  to  be 
avenged,  but  vengeance  is  cold  comfort.  Time  is 
sure  to  avenge  the  Armenians;  a  civilization  that 
massacres  Armenians  by  the  hundred  thousand  ad- 
mits that  it  is  dead.  But  that  will  not  bring  the 
dead  to  life.  The  pity  of  the  war  is  that  it  involves 
such  dreadful  atonements. 


Fehriiary  21^,  1916, 

UR  military  education  lags.  It  seems  to  be 
hard  for  Congress  to  take  our  military 
situation  seriously.  It  takes  imagination 
to  visualize  our  need  of  a  trained  defensive  force,  and 
Congress  has  been  called  upon  to  see  it  all  at  once. 
Mr.  Garrison  If  it  is  slow  about  it  wc  should  remember 
Gets  Out  that  it  took  Mr.  Wilson  a  year  and  a  half 
to  see  it.  He  finally  got  a  revelation  on  the  subject, 
and  in  due  time  probably  Congress  will  get  one.  It 
is  asked  to  accept  an  entirely  novel  idea  and  to  put  it 
through  at  very  great  expense,  and  to  help  itself  to 
nothing  out  of  it.  Naturally  it  balks  and  wants  to 
contrive  something  resembling  something  it  is  more 
used  to,  and  that  will  keep  more  power  of  promotion 
and  disbursement  in  more  familiar  hands. 

Well,  Congress  has  the  cards  and  it  is  the  turn  of 
Congress  to  play  and  it  is  our  turn  to  wait.  Mr. 
Garrison's  difficulty  was  not  so  much  vvdth  the  Presi- 
dent as  with  Congress.  Mr.  Wilson  was  favourable 
to  his  plan  of  the  Continental  army,  but  there  were 
not  Democrats  enough  in  Congress  who  were  willing 
to  put  it  through.  Mr.  Garrison  would  not  wait. 
He  resigned.  Mr.  Wilson  has  got  to  wait.  He  can- 
not resign.  It  would  do  no  good.  But  at  a  pinch 
he  can  split  his  party,  and  call  upon  Congressmen  of 
all  parties  to  put  through  such  a  measure  as  he  can 
approve.  He  cannot  well  do  that  until  he  sees  what 
kind  of  an  army  bill  the  Democratic  majority  can 
hatch  out,  and  makes  up  his  mind  whether  it  will 
do.     It  ought  not  to  take  long  to  discover  that. 

Mr.  Garrison  was  an  excellent  Secretarj^  of  War, 

238 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  239 

and  it  is  sad  to  lose  him.  He  has  some  sporting 
blood  in  him,  and  there  is  a  feeling  that  there  was 
none  too  much  in  the  Cabinet  even  with  him  in  it. 

The  trouble  with  the  militia  system  of  military 
preparation  which  the  Democratic  majority  in  Con- 
gress seems  to  favour  is  that,  so  far  as  yet  developed, 
it  knocks  the  belly  out  of  bellicosity,  and  leaves  in  the 
cost.  x\s  threatened,  it  would  be  as  expensive  as  real 
preparation  and  would  not  be  efficient.  The  Con- 
tinental army  would  probably  knock  our  present 
State  militia  on  the  head,  and  the  States  would  have 
to  set  up  constabularies  for  their  police  work.  That 
would,  no  doubt,  be  very  unacceptable  to  labour. 
The  Socialists  would  oppose  it,  and  there  would  be 
many  wild  words  about  it  from  the  usual  sources  of 
vociferation. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  opposition  to  the 
Continental  system  is  strong.  The  compulsory 
service  people  think  nothing  of  it  except  as  a  first 
step  to  something  more  effectual;  the  pacifists  op- 
pose it;  the  National  Guard  sees  its  finish  in  it;  State 
politicians  are  prone  to  look  coldly  on  it,  and  it  may  be 
that  Mr.  Garrison  got  out  because  he  concluded  that 
his  best  plan  that  he  had  worked  hard  over  hadn't  a 
chance  of  going  through. 


March  2, 1916. 

MR.  WILSON'S  unpopularity  seems  to  be 
growing.  He  is  unpopular  just  now  with  M. 
Clemenceau  in  France,  whose  specialty  is 
demolishing  statesmen,  with  Punch  and  others  in 
London  who  think  him  too  patient,  with  Germans, 
Go  to  It  Austrians,  and  Turks  pretty  generally 
Republicans  ^e  fear,  with  Mr.  Root,  Mr.  Roosevelt, 
and  most  of  the  other  Republicans  and  Progres- 
sives who  are  getting  ready  to  nominate  some  one 
for  President,  with  some  Democrats  who  don't  know 
what  they  want  but  are  conscious  of  a  suspicion 
that  they  are  not  getting  it,  with  pacifists  like  Mr. 
Bryan  and  Mr.  Villard,  with  militarists  generally 
and  especially  the  Continental  army  and  universal- 
compulsory-service  kind,  with  Col.  George  Harvey, 
with  a  large  company  of  dislikers  of  Josephus  Daniels, 
and  with  everybody  who  ever  bet  a  cent  on  the  bus- 
iness future  of  Mexico. 

If  Mr.  Wilson  was  malfeasant,  incompetent, 
cowardly,  vacillating,  and  insincere  in  the  degree 
that  all  these  detractors,  between  them,  aver,  the 
wonder  would  be  that  he  had  managed  to  shuffle 
along  three  years  in  office  with  such  immense  defects 
without  having  a  committee  appointed  to  be  answer- 
able for  his  behaviour.  That  makes  one  think  that 
the  circumstances  of  the  world  have  a  good  deal  to 
do  with  most  of  the  complaints  that  are  made  about 
him.  If  his  detractors  could  concentrate  on  two  or 
three  good  points — say  Mexico,  Garrison,  and  the 
Lusitania — they  might  score.  But  there  is  safety 
for  him  in  the  variety  of  their  accusations.     They 

«40 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  241 

lambast  him  for  the  tariff  bill,  the  shipping  bill,  the 
persecution  of  corporations,  the  invasion  of  Belgium, 
the  Lusitania,  British  meddling  with  our  exports,  the 
exploits  of  German  spies  and  fire-bugs,  the  resignation 
of  Mr.  Garrison,  the  retention  of  Mr.  Daniels,*and  the 
neglect  of  Americans  and  their  interests  in  Mexico. 

It  is  hard  to  get  proper  team  work  among  so  many 
accusers.  They  get  to  correcting  one  another  and 
that  weakens  the  attack.  But  it  is  true  that  there 
is  doubt  and  dissatisfaction  in  the  land.  So  there 
is  in  every  other  country  on  earth.  The  war  is  har- 
rowing, and  even  here  the  harrowed  don't  like 
it.  We  have  been  warmed  up  to  deeds  of  valour 
and  sacrifice  and  then  allowed  to  cool,  and  the  effect 
on  the  national  disposition  has  not  been  good.  Per- 
haps it  is  just  as  well  that  the  tonic  of  a  Presidential 
campaign  is  about  to  be  poured  out  for  us,  and  that 
the  rival  doctors  are  giving  out  their  diagnoses  and 
telling  us  what  we  ought  to  take. 

Mr.  Root  is  the  leading  diagnostician.  His  speech 
on  February  15th  at  the  Republican  Convention 
in  New  York  in  which  he  arraigned  the  Democratic 
party  and  its  President  as  unfit  to  conduct  the  affairs 
of  the  country  was  the  chief  topic  of  political  discus- 
sion for  a  week,  and  is  still  discussed.  If  there  is 
anything  that  Mr.  Wilson  or  the  Democrats  have 
done — the  Canal  Tolls  Repeal  bill  for  example — that 
pleased  Mr.  Root,  he  left  it  out  of  that  speech.  If 
there  was  anything  that  was  adapted  to  persuade  the 
voters  to  put  the  Republicans  back  in  control  of  the 
country,  he  put  it  in.  Mr.  Root  is  quite  free  from  the 
fault  imputed  to  Mr.  Brandeis  of  being  on  both  sides 
of  a  contest  at  once.  It  was  a  good  speech,  whatever 
its  defects;  a  speech  that  v/ill  be  read  and  reread  and 
kept  for  reference  and  study.  It  was  a  useful  service 
to  examine  the  Democratic  record  and  put  together, 
in   form    convenient    for    examination,    everything 


242  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

that  can  be  said  about  Democratic  incapacity  and 
the  expediency  of  turning  the  Democrats  out.  We 
don't  want  to  keep  them  in  if  we  can  do  any  better. 
A  great  multitude  of  voters  in  these  times  are  for  the 
United  States,  and  for  whatever  group  or  party 
can  handle  its  affairs  best.  Democratic  incapacity 
means,  practically,  incapacity  in  Mr.  Wilson.  More 
of  him  is  all  the  Democrats  can  offer  us  next  Novem- 
ber. If,  as  the  New  Republic  concludes  and  an- 
nounces, "he  is  not  up  to  his  job"  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  opposition  to  offer  us  an  acceptable  change. 

Therefore,  go  it.  Republicans!  Rake  over  your 
principles,  present  your  complaints,  capture  your 
candidates  and  put  them  all  in  your  show-window 
where  we  can  take  a  look  at  them.  We  are  willing  to 
change  if  we  can  better  ourselves;  willing  to  look  at 
your  samples,  and  listen  to  your  terms,  and  do  any 
business  with  you  that  our  needs  and  means  and  past 
experience  may  warrant.  A  former  Bull  Moose  cam- 
paigner who  loves  France  said  that  when  he  heard 
Mr.  Root's  speech  he  cried.  His  soul  had  long  been 
athirst  for  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  meant  business. 
When  he  heard  Root  his  weary  spirit  said  to  him, 
"Here,  at  last,  is  a  prophet  who  can  smite  the  rock 
and  make  it  gush." 

But  will  the  rock  gush  votes  for  Mr.  Root.^^ 

Probably  not.  Mr.  Root  is  not  a  Moses,  but  he  is 
an  admirable  Aaron ;  a  great  minister.  Yoke  him  up 
with  his  proper  Moses  and  it  is  a  great  combination, 
Moses  to  strike  the  rock,  Aaron  to  direct  the  gush. 

Now,  heretofore,  Mr.  Root's  Moses  has  been  Roose- 
velt. The  two  of  them  together  would  be  a  real 
alternative  to  Mr.  Wilson  and  his  Aaron.  We  want 
an  alternative.  We  don't  know  what  will  happen 
from  day  to  day  from  now  to  November,  or  how  tired 
we  may  get  of  the  present  administration.  Things 
may  work  out  so  favourably  to  it  that  we  shall  want 


.  JlI 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  243 

it  to  go  on,  but  if  not,  we  shall  be  loath  to  turn  to  a 
new  experiment.  For  better  or  worse  we  think  we 
know  the  combination  of  Roosevelt  and  Root,  and  if 
we  were  badly  enough  scared  or  disgusted  we  might 
turn  to  that  if  we  had  a  chance. 

But  can  it  be  offered  us?  Can  Mr.  Roosevelt 
and  Mr.  Root  get  together  and  work  together  again, 
and  can  they  unite  the  Republican  party?  It  is 
hard  to  turn  back  the  hands  of  the  political  clock. 
It  would  be  hard  to  put  William  Barnes  to  work 
again  for  Roosevelt.  The  old  Republican  party  and 
the  Progressives  are  still  as  far  apart  as  any  two 
political  groups  in  the  country.  One  stands  for  the 
old  order,  the  other  for  a  new  one;  yet  they  can  do 
nothing  unless  they  can  get  together,  and  the  most 
signal  token  of  reunion  would  be  the  recombination 
of  Roosevelt  and  Root.  Allien  the  Republican  psivty 
came  to  be  half  hog  half  bull  it  was  turned  out.  There 
were  enough  people  who  wished  neither  to  be  tram- 
pled in  the  trough  nor  tossed  in  the  air  to  put  the 
Democrats  in  office.  If  the  exigencies  of  the  world 
crisis  can  be  made  to  supersede  all  other  considera- 
tions and  all  former  orders,  the  Repubhcans  and  the 
Progressives  may  get  together  and  make  a  formidable 
fight  for  the  Presidency.  If  they  can,  let  'em,  but 
it  will  be  some  months  yet  before  we  can  tell  what 
they  can  do,  and  meanwhile  the  world-fire  is  burning 
fast  and  Mr.  Wilson  and  his  political  family  are  all  we 
have  to  meet  it  with.  Their  chance  is  not  gone  yet. 
It  strengthens  Mr.  Wilson's  hands  in  some  respects 
for  the  country  to  grow  more  impatient  than  he  is. 
Mr.  Bryan  is  out  speech-making  for  the  pacifist  at- 
titude which  helps  to  bring  his  views  and  the  Presi- 
dent's in  sharper  contrast.  ^Vhat  damage  Mr.  Gar- 
rison's resignation  did  the  administration  in  the  eyes 
of  persons  who  favour  military  preparation  is  likely  to 
be  made  good  by  this  sharp  detachment  of  Mr.  Bryan. 


March  16, 1916. 

4S  Life  goes  to  press  the  blind  in  Congress, 
/A  under  their  blind  leader,  seem  to  be  proceed- 
X  ^  ing  with  suitable  expedition  into  the  ditch. 
It  remains  to  be  seen  to  what  extent  they  will  be  able 
to  hold  it  against  assault.  If  Congress,  too,  takes 
The  McLemore  to  trench  warfare  it  will  be  in  the  fashion 
Resolution  and  bring  home  to  us  the  methods  of  the 
great  war. 

But  the  Senate  supports  the  President,  and  prob- 
ably the  House  will,  too.  To  oppose  him  in  the 
present  issue  calls  for  good  nerves  or  very  strong 
inducements.  He  holds  that  accepted  rulings  of 
international  law  cannot  be  changed  in  war-time 
by  a  neutral  without  consent  of  all  hands  concerned. 
He  also  holds  that  the  management  of  foreign  rela- 
tions belongs  to  the  executive  branch  of  the  govern- 
ment and  must  be  handled  through  the  State  De- 
partment, and  that  for  Congress  to  intrude  uninvited, 
on  diplomatic  negotiations,  virtually  destroys  the 
power  of  the  government  to  negotiate.  He  is  right 
in  these  matters,  and  is  bound  to  have  the  support  of 
persons  who  are  interested  in  the  maintenance  of  com- 
petent government  in  the  United  States. 

To  the  gentlemen  who  favour  the  resolutions  that 
would  forbid  Americans  to  sail  on  the  merchant 
ships  of  belligerents,  competent  government  of  these 
States  seems,  for  the  time  being,  a  secondary  consid- 
eration. Senator  Gore  is  an  old-time  populist,  and 
presumptively  unfavourable  to  any  very  definite 
competence  in  government.  Senator  O'Gorman  is 
out  to  do  a  damage  to  England,  and,  apparently, 

~"'    244 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  245 

would  not  think  a  damage  to  the  United  States  too 
high  a  price  to  pay  for  it.  In  the  House  some  friends 
of  the  McLemore  resokition  are  anti-English,  some 
are  pro-German,  some  are  over-eager  pacifists,  some 
are  Wilson-haters  and  anxious  to  put  the  President  in 
a  hole.  Behind  all  of  them  is  Germany,  working 
every  minute,  and  by  all  means,  to  twist/Congress 
to  her  purpose.  Washington  now  is  as  distinctly 
subject  to  the  sleepless  German  assault  as  Verdun. 
German  lives  are  not  sacrificed  there,  but  one  hears 
that  German  money  flows  a  deep  and  silent  stream 
through  our  capital,  and  wonders  to  what  uses  it  is 
put. 

The  British,  acting  in  accordance  with  advice  from 
their  friends  here,  have  left  the  cause  of  the  Allies 
in  this  country  to  voluntary  American  advocates. 
They  have  spent  no  money  in  agitation,  and  sent 
over  no  emissaries  to  influence  public  opinion.  The 
Germans  have  worked  hard  all  the  time,  beginning, 
not  very  fortunately,  with  Dr.  Dernburg,  and  keeping 
at  it  much  more  privately  but  incessantly  ever  since. 
They  haven't  captured  the  country  yet,  but  they  are 
credited  with  getting  a  part,  at  least,  of  what  they 
have  gone  after.  They  are  very  industrious  people, 
and  their  means  are  ample,  yet  we  should  be  morti- 
fied, and  worse,  if  their  invisible  industry,  and  the 
underground  currents  of  their  means  should  prevail 
appreciably  against  the  natural  and  righteous  bias 
of  the  great  majority  of  the  American  people  in  this 
war.  They  may  subsidize  newspapers  and  finance 
Clan-na-Gael  meetings  and  distribute  the  agents  of 
arson  where  they  may  be  heard  but  not  seen,  but  if 
they  are  caught  meddling  improperly  with  Congress 
something  really  may  come  of  it  that  will  not  be  to 
their  advantage.  Nothing  would  make  us  readier  to 
part  peremptorily  with  the  German  Emperor's  whole 
diplomatic  outfit  in  this  country  than  the  knowledge 


246  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 


< 


that  it  was  working  Congress  to  beat  the  President 
and  people  of  the  United  States. 

Proceedings  still  go  on,  at  this  writing,  around 
Verdun  with  persistence,  but  as  yet  with  no  signifi- 
cant results  except  a  loss  of  life  said  to  be  appalling. 
The  Germans  seem  to  have  paid  very  dear  for  what 
they  have  got,  and  not  to  have  got  very  much.  The 
impression  we  get  is  that  matters  are  going,  on  the 
whole,  satisfactorily  to  the  French,  and  these  un- 
expected activities  favour  the  notion  that  the  war 
will  not  die  of  old  age  in  a  trench,  but  will  be  fought 
out  this  year. 

One  reads  in  a  Boston  paper  that  at  a  public  meet- 
ing in  New  York  President  Lowell  of  Harvard  pre- 
dicted that  the  next  war,  thirty  or  forty  years  hence, 
will  be  more  destructive  than  the  present  one  and 
probably  will  involve  the  whole  world. 

Dr.  Lowell  is  about  sixty  years  old,  and  can  afford 
to  make  bold  predictions  about  what  will  happen 
thirty  or  forty  years  from  now.  And  truly,  with  this 
war  unfinished  and  in  its  present  stage,  any  one  seems 
bold  who  forecasts  the  next  one.  But  probably  what 
he  said  would  not  quite  match  the  report. 

Is  it  not  conceivable  that  war  will  go  out  of  style? 

This  modern  war,  as  has  often  been  said,  is  not  so 
much  a  war  of  men  against  men  as  a  war  of  men 
against  machinery  and  chemistry.  Is  there  no  hope 
that  to  the  survivors  of  this  present  war — if  there  are 
some — and  even  to  their  children,  this  modern  war- 
fare may  seem  too  fantastic  and  inexpedient  for  hu- 
man patronage?  There  is  no  doubt  about  its  being 
not  only  hideous  but  preposterous. 

Mr.  Sidney  Brooks,  who  writes  in  the  NorfJi 
American  Review  about  The  New  America,  discusses 
the  present  extraordinary  antipathy  in  this  country 
to  war,  and  says: 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  247 

Who  knows  but  that  the  unique  patience  with  which  President 
Wilson  has  confronted  the  foreign  problems  of  his  administration 
may  not  eventually  become  the  established  rule  of  all  interna- 
tional conduct? 

Who  can  say  that  the  steady  and  unceasing  revulsion  of  the 
American  people  against  imperialism,  external  adventures  and 
the  whole  doctrine  of  militarism  may  not  communicate  itself  to 
other  nations  and  be  accepted  as  the  universal  guide? 

Who  knows? 

Nobody. 

Matters  one  year  hence,  five  years  hence,  thirty 
years  hence  in  this  world  seem  all  completely  beyond 
calculation.  The  human  mind  is  receiving  a  very 
deep  impression.  Nobody  knows  how  it  is  going  to 
work  after  the  lessons  of  this  profound  calamity  have 
been  stamped  into  it.  It  has  long  been  considered 
likely  that  war  would  be  abolished  by  the  develop- 
ment of  destructiveness.  How  much  more  destruc- 
tive has  it  got  to  become.^  With  such  a  start  as  has 
been  made,  is  there  any  need  of  putting  off  Armaged- 
don for  another  thirty  years?  Isn't  this  a  sufficiently 
drastic  proceeding  that  is  now  going  on? 

Mr.  Baker,  the  new  Secretary  of  War,  has  been 
mayor  of  Cleveland,  and  was  a  friend  and  disciple  of 
Tom  Johnson,  who  had  the  dream  of  three-cent  fares 
for  street  railroads.  Another  friend  of  Tom  Johnson 
was  Brand  Whitlock  (of  Belgium).  Mr.  Wilson  seems 
to  like  Tom  Johnson's  friends,  but  he  will  never  rivet 
the  street  railway  interests  to  his  cause  by  appointing 
them  to  high  offices. 

To  bring  the  American  people  to  military  prepara- 
tion is  very  like  bringing  a  colt  up  to  a  steam  engine. 
It  will  take  patience  and  gentle  handling.  The 
suspicion  lurks  in  many  minds  that  the  next  worse 
thing  to  a  bad  army  is  a  good  one.  If  Mr.  Baker 
can  allay  this  suspicion  he  v/ill  do  a  lot  of  good. 


248  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

There  is  an  idea  that  armies  are  intended  to  hurt 
some  one,  and  that,  too,  he  will  have  to  fight,  for, 
as  we  all  know,  the  truth  is  that  what  armies  are  for 
is  to  prevent  folks  from  being  hurt. 

Our  people  can't  be  compelled  to  have  a  proper 
army,  but  maybe  they  can  be  persuaded.  If  Mr. 
Baker  is  a  persuasive  man  like  Mr.  Whitlock,  he 
may  be  just  the  man  for  the  War  Department. 

Col.  House  has  got  home,  and  the  distress  of  sun- 
dry newspapers  and  newspaper  disputants  because 
of  the  presence  abroad  of  an  emissary  not  selected 
with  the  complicity  of  the  Senate  is  now  for  the 
moment  abated.  He  is  back  in  good  health  and 
spirits  with  his  reticence  in  good  working  order,  and 
has  been  over  to  tell  the  President  what  he  knows. 
If  we  were  the  President  and  what  is  up  to  Mr.  Wilson 
was  up  to  us,  we  should  be  mighty  glad  to  have  sev- 
eral hours'  conversation  with  a  judicious  man  who 
has  been  everywhere  and  seen  everybody. 


March  S3, 1916. 

IF  VILLA  could  have  sacked  St.  Louis  the  shock 
would  have  been  greater,  and  the  somnolence  of 
the  Middle  West  would  have  been  more  effectu- 
ally broken.  But  to  have  him  break  over  the  border 
at  all  and  raid  even  so  small  a  town  as  Columbus, 
Carnals  and  New  Mexico,  was  shock  enough  to  stir 
Celestials  the  government  of  these  States.  Within 
twenty-four  hours — which  was  a  day  too  long,  Marse 
Henry  says — Washington  had  collected  its  mind  and 
telegraphed  **Go  and  get  him"  to  General  Funston, 
and  there,  the  matter  stands. 

Meanwhile  there  is  no  excitement.  One  can  be 
interested  in  a  Villa  foray,  but  hardly  excited  over  it. 
And,  anyhow,  our  capacity  for  excitement  is  about 
exhausted.  Whatever  we  might  be  called  upon  to 
do  after  a  year  and  eight  months  of  such  emotions 
as  we  have  passed  through,  we  would  probably  go 
about  it  stolidly  and  with  the  minimum  of  noise. 
We  have  got  more  lessons  out  of  the  great  war  than 
we  think.  For  the  most  part  they  have  resulted  in 
no  action,  but  have  merely  been  stored.  But  they 
have  produced  a  vast  deal  of  thought  and  mental 
preparation.  Even  we  Americans  are  not  quite  the 
same  people  we  were  on  August  1,  1914.  We  are 
much  less  parochial.  Day  after  day  we  have  sat 
on  the  benches  in  the  current  history  class,  and  we 
have  learned  something.  We  know  a  great  deal 
more  about  the  world  we  live  in  than  we  did  a  year 
and  a  half  ago.  We  have  read  and  read,  and  thought 
and  thought  and  thought.  We  have  not  got  very 
far^  but  we  have  made  a  start  towards  getting  some- 

249 


250  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

where,  and  whenever  we  are  jolted  into  action  all  our 
new  ideas  will  begin  to  operate. 

There  are  two  great  parties  now  in  the  United 
States:  the  Celestials  and  Carnals.  Into  one  or  the 
other  of  these  groups  the  voters  may  be  herded, 
including  those  who  shift  so  fast  back  and  forth  from 
one  side  to  the  other  that  nothing  but  instantaneous 
photography  can  catch  them. 

Mr.  Wilson  is  the  leader  of  the  Celestial  party,  and 
Mr.  Hoot  is  leader  pro  tern  of  the  other  until  a  candi- 
date can  be  selected. 

The  Celestials  believe  that  this  is  the  chance  of 
many  lifetimes  to  change  the  habits  of  men,  make 
the  world  over,  and  introduce  new  gears  into  the 
running  of  it,  so  that  it  will  go  better  and  produce 
more  and  better  commodities  and  folks.  The  Carnals 
believe  that  the  Celestials,  when  they  are  not  gainful 
hypocrites,  are  farmers;  that  the  world  is  going  on 
just  as  heretofore;  that  the  early  bird  will  continue 
to  get  the  worm,  and  the  battle  be,  as  heretofore,  to 
the  strong.  The  Carnals  believe  in  Mark  Twain's 
motto:  Do  unto  others  as  you  expect  them  to 
do  unto  you,  and  do  it  first.  The  Celestial  plat- 
form is  the  Golden  Rule.  Mr.  Roosevelt,  with 
his  "Fear  God  and  take  your  own  part,"  is  a  strad- 
dler. 

A  lot  of  the  Celestials  are  mad  at  Mr.  Wilson  just 
now  because  they  think  he  manifests  a  disposition 
to  use  carnal  weapons.  All  the  Carnals  have  been 
mad  at  him  this  long  time  because  he  has  stuck  so 
persistently  to  Celestial  methods.  Most  of  the  Car- 
nals who  are  not  Germans  are  passionately  opposed 
to  Germany,  though  Germany  is  the  great  living 
exponent  of  the  Carnal  idea.  The  Celestials  disap- 
prove of  passionate  views  on  any  subject,  but  they 
also,  for  the  most  part,  disapprove  heartily  enough 
of  Germany,  though  a  good  many  of  them  cling  to 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  251 

neutrality.  Carnals  and  Celestials,  however,  will 
alike  disapprove  of  Villa  and  feel  that  he  must  be 
abated  in  shortest  order  possible,  even  if  carnal 
weapons  have  to  be  used  on  the  job.  So  Villa  may 
prove  to  be  an  instrument  of  Providence  to  get  the 
Carnals  and  Celestials  together  and  make  them  work 
for  good.  Mr.  Baker,  the  new  Secretary  of  War,  is 
said  to  have  come  down  the  steps  from  the  President's 
office  four  steps  at  a  time  on  the  way  to  the  War  De- 
partment to  signal  full  speed  ahead  to  General  Fun- 
ston,  and  yet  Mr.  Baker  is  a  blown-in-the-glass 
Celestial,  lately  a  Pacifist  and  a  whilom  associate  of 
Golden  Rule  Jones ! 

Possibly  a  combination  of  Celestial  purposes  and 
compunctions  and  Carnal  means  and  instruments 
may  be  about  right.  Hardly  anybody  wants  to 
conquer  Mexico.  That  would  be  right  in  the  teeth 
of  the  Celestial  purpose.  But  hardly  anybody  holds 
to  the  view  that  the  way  to  capture  Villa  is  to  send 
Jolin  Reed  to  put  salt  on  his  tail.  AJmost  everybody 
feels  that  the  time  for  that  is  past,  and  that  there  is 
nothing  for  it  but  to  beat  up  Villa  with  soldiers  and 
up-to-date  carnal  appliances. 

Wliether  the  Carnal  and  Celestial  division  of 
voters  is  going  to  last  till  June  we  cannot  tell.  They 
may  get  all  mixed  up,  and  split  again  on  war  with 
Germany.  We  may  have  President  Wilson  on 
horseback  and  Col.  House  out  with  a  rapid-fire 
gun,  and  Bryan  back  in  the  Volunteer  service, 
and  Henry  Ford  as  Chief  of  Wagon  Masters  in 
the  Quartermaster's  Department,  and  all  so  busy 
that  there  won't  be  time  to  nominate  a  new  Presi- 
dent. 

But  we  can't  tell.  We  can't  tell  much  of  anything 
about  what's  ahead.  Folks  who  put  their  ears  to 
the  ground  almost  think  they  hear  the  guns  at  Ver- 
dun.    It  may  be  that  the  great  decisive  struggle  of 


252  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

the  war  is  on;  that  spring  will  see  the  fall  of  Essen, 
or  some  such  signal  collapse;  that  we  are  closer,  a 
great  deal,  than  we  imagine,  to  the  day  when  Europe 
shall  cease  firing,  and  draw  a  long  breath,  and  look 
across  the  seas. 


March  SO,  1916, 

THE  impression  that  prevails  hereabouts  as 
to  the  proceedings  at  Verdun  is  that  the  Ger- 
mans have  gone  too  far  to  stop,  and  not  far 
enough  to  get  anywhere.  The  information  that  we 
accept  is  all  to  the  effect  that  what  they  have  won  has 
y  ,  cost  them  far  more  than  it  is  worth,  and 
that  whatever  they  may  win  will  cost  them 
the  same,  and  that  they  can  neither  afford  the  mili- 
tary expense  of  these  proceedings  nor  the  political  con- 
sequences of  giving  up  an  effort  that  has  cost  so  dear. 
At  any  rate,  as  a  consequence  of  the  assaults  on 
Verdun  thus  far,  French  confidence  and  confidence  in 
France  have  risen.  However  fatuous  are  the  stock- 
market  rumours  from  Patagonia  and  Galveston  of 
immediate  peace,  the  Allies  and  their  friends  are 
surer  than  ever  that  they  can  handle  their  job.  The 
retirement  of  Von  Tirpitz  seems  like  a  necessary  con- 
cession to  civilized  sentiment  born  of  the  conviction 
that  Germany  is  not  in  a  position  in  which  she  can 
afford  to  make  any  new  enemies.  Poor  old  Ernst 
Haeckel's  terms  of  peace  in  his  new  book:  "Antwerp 
our  stronghold  on  the  North  Sea  and  Riga  on  the 
Baltic,"  look  handsome  on  the  map,  but  do  not  match 
with  what  we  read  in  the  papers. 

A  joint  resolution  has  been  introduced  in  the  House 
calling  on  the  Secretary  of  State  to  urge  the  allied 
powers  to  permit  the  importation  of  condensed  milk 
for  the  use  of  the  babies  and  infants  of  Germany  and 
Austria  and  their  allies,  and  of  Poland. 

Certainly  a  merciful  intention  goes  with  this  meas- 
ure, and  the  appeal  of  it  is  strong  and  pitiful. 

253 


254  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

But  what  has  become  of  the  Teuton  maxim — 
Krieg  ist  Krieg  ? 

War  was  war  in  Belgium,  and  there  was  no  post- 
ponement on  account  of  babies.  War  was  war  in 
Armenia,  and  babies  perished  by  the  hundred  thou- 
sand. War  was  war  in  Servia.  How  many  Servian 
babies  are  left  alive.^^  How  many  in  Poland?  One 
reads  that  in  France  alone  800,000  children  have  been 
made  fatherless  by  the  war.  The  French  Govern- 
ment is  considering  how  to  feed  those  children  in  the 
years  to  come.     For  them  Krieg  ist  Krieg. 

Is  it  to  be  Krieg  ist  Krieg  except  in  Germany? 

This  war  is  one  of  resistance  to  the  German  pur- 
pose so  to  deal  with  France  that  France  shall  ever- 
more be  powerless  to  obstruct  a  German  purpose;  so 
to  deal  with  Britain  that  Britain  shall  take  orders 
from  Berlin;  so  to  deal  with  Russia  that  Russia  shall 
tremble  and  slink  back  at  the  German  name;  so  to 
deal  with  all  mankind  that  Germany  shall  be  feared 
and  obeyed  ilher  alles. 

If  there  is  a  dearth  of  milk  in  Germany  it  is  the 
sequence  of  " f rightfulness "  in  Belgium  and  France; 
a  consequence  of  a  purpose  so  formidable  and  policies 
and  actions  so  dreadful  that  they  have  bound  all  the 
threatened  countries  together  in  a  do-or-die  struggle 
to  defeat  them.  It  is  not  the  Allies  who  are  starving 
the  German  babies;  it  is  Treitschke,  Bernhardi,  Von 
Tirpitz,  and  the  House  of  Hohenzollern,  artificers  and 
preachers  of  the  doctrine  that  might  makes  right  and 
war  is  the  world's  great  medicine.  Why  not,  then, 
a  joint  resolution  calling  on  our  Secretary  to  urge 
the  Kaiser  to  ask  for  terms  on  which  to  end  the  war, 
so  that  the  fear  of  the  German  may  cease  in  Europe 
and  German  babies  may  be  fed? 

But  put  no  trust  at  all  in  stories  that  German 
babies  are  short  of  milk.  One  reads  that  Belgium 
had  a  million  and  a  half  of  cattle  and  the  Germans 


THE  DI/\JRY  OF  A  NATION  255 

took  half  of  them,  and  half  a  million  more  from 
Northern  France.  One  reads  that  Germans  have 
systematically  skinned  the  food  out  of  Poland.  It 
works  up  sentiment  against  the  Allies  to  have  it  said 
that  they  are  starving  German  babies,  and  it  makes 
for  a  world  advertisement  of  Ben  Lindsay's  humani- 
tarian reputation  to  have  him  appear  as  the  German 
babies'  Galahad.  But  in  this  matter  one  is  con- 
strained to  look  with  suspicion  even  on  Ben. 


March  30, 1916. 

WHETHER  we  want  universal^  compul- 
sory, military  service  in  these  States  is 
matter  for  discussion,  but  before  we  can 
have  it,  or  anything  approaching  it,  we  have  got  to 
want  it.  It  cannot  be  forced  on  an  unwilling  people 
Military  cxccpt  by  some  power  otitside  of  this  con- 
Preparafiow  tinent.  Within  this  continent  there  is  no 
power  that  can  do  it.  The  first  step  to  universal 
service  must  be  a  mental  step.  Soldiering  must 
commend  itself  to  the  people  of  the  country  as  a 
necessary  factor  in  acquiring  or  maintaining  some- 
thing they  want. 

The  London  Spectator  says  that  a  great  change 
has  come  over  the  spirit  of  the  British  people;  that 
under  pressure  of  a  year  and  a  half  of  war  "a  strange 
new  element  has  glided  almost  unobserved  into  the 
soul  of  the  race." 

It  has  no  name.  It  will  never  have  a  name.  .  .  .  It  is  in  a 
sense  wholly  iinp)erceived  by  those  who  feel  it  and  show  it  most. 
But  it  is  there.  It  moves  with  us  like  a  shadow.  It  lies  down 
with  us  at  night  and  rises  with  us  in  the  morning.  It  controls 
every  movement  of  the  unconscious  mind.  No  man  can  say 
when  the  change  came.  Most  men  are  still  unaware  that  it  has 
come.     Because  it  is  universal  there  is  nothing  to  measure  it  by. 

This  spirit  shows  in  a  demeanour  that  recalls 
"the  quietness  and  patience  with  which  men  possess 
their  souls  when  a  great  renunciation  has  been  made 
and  they  are  ready  for  sacrifice."  Nobody  worries 
any  more  in  England,  says  the  Spectator,  over  stop- 
ping amusements  or  racing  or  sports.     And  as  to 

256 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  257 

compulsory  service,  "no  one  is  even  asking  how  the 
people  will  stand  it  or  what  will  be  the  consequences. 
.  .  .  A  duty  has  only  to  be  pointed  out  to  secure 
its  fulfillment." 

England,  by  this  account,  has  had  a  change  of 
heart — has  been  born  again.  Her  people's  eyes  have 
been  opened  and  they  see  things  from  a  new  stand- 
point, so  that  what  was  impossible  has  become  pos- 
sible, and  what  was  possible  has  become  matter  of 
course. 

Some  such  great  regenerative  inner  change  as  this 
has  been  hoped  for  for  this  country  as  the  outcome  of 
the  war.  We  have  not  got  it  yet,  though  we  have 
caught  some  reflections  of  it.  The  military  prepara- 
tion we  are  trying  to  make  has  as  yet  no  sufficient 
depth  of  feeling  behind  it.  There  was  much  feeling 
behind  the  Piatt sburg  camp  movement.  Most  men 
who  went  to  Plattsburg  and  the  other  camps  went 
from  a  strong  sense  of  duty.  They  had  felt  and 
thought  deeply  about  it.  There  were  enough  men 
of  that  sort  to  make  the  summer  camps  succeed; 
there  was  feeling  enough  to  feed  them;  but  we  have 
still  to  learn  whether  there  is  feeling  enough  to  carry 
through  these  larger  plans  of  national  defense  that 
are  now  on  the  carpet,  and  fill  the  regiments  that  they 
w^ill  provide  for. 

The  general  conscience  of  the  country  has  not 
taken  up  the  military  burden  yet.  The  movement 
has  energetic  missionaries,  but  it  is  still  in  the  stage 
when  men  say:  "This  seems  a  good  thing.  Some- 
body ought  to  do  it."  It  has  not  got  yet  to  the  stage 
when  they  say,  "This  is  my  duty.  Here  I  am!" 
England  got  to  that  stage  only  after  a  year  of  pound- 
ing and  bereavement,  and  of  terrors  driven  home  and 
an  immense  exercise  of  all  the  lifting  power  of  Great 
Britain. 

But  no  terrors  have  been  brought  home  to  us; 


258  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

we  have  not  suffered  loss  or  bereavement.  We  are 
called  upon  to  provide  in  cold  blood  against  a  possible 
need  which  thousands  of  talkative  citizens  deny  and 
deride.  That  is  our  predicament,  and  if  we  can  take 
elTective  measures  under  such  conditions  it  will  be 
very  much  to  our  credit.  It  may  be  that  for  the 
moment  we  can  do  no  more  than  prepare  to  prepare. 
If  we  can  string  the  wires  through  which  the  current 
is  to  pass,  that  will  be  much;  very  much.  It  will  be 
much  to  plan  organization  both  for  the  army  and 
the  navy;  to  vote  and  collect  the  money  to  provide 
for  the  great  machinery  of  defense.  If,  in  addition, 
we  can  moderately  increase  the  regular  army,  provide 
for  the  instruction  of  a  large  number  of  officers,  so  far 
as  it  can  be  carried  in  peace  times,  and  train  young 
men  who  are  willing,  as  they  come  along,  in  the  duties 
of  a  soldier,  we  shall  do  about  all  that  can  be  hoped 
for.  We  shall  have  no  great  popular  movement  to- 
wards military  preparation  until  somebody  bumps 
into  us  hard,  or  the  idea  comes  that  will  stir  men's 
souls. 


April  6,  1916. 

JAMES  LORD,  boss  miner  and  head  of  the  Mining 
Division  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labour, 
want^  a  democratic  army.  He  has  observed  the 
war,  and  read  about  the  German  army,  and  is  not 
pleased  with  the  notion  of  an  obedient  army  where 
The  Democmti£  the  mass  of  the  soldiers  are  KanonenfuU 
Army  f^f^  j^y  ^g^  of  which  their  superiors  ex- 

press their  wills.  He  is  not  positive  as  to  details 
of  his  democratic  army,  but  suggests  that  officers 
in  it  should  be  elected;  that  soldiers  should  be  tried 
by  their  peers — their  fellow  soldiers — for  military 
offenses,  rather  than  by  officers;  that  it  would 
help  to  guarantee  the  democracy  of  a  democratic 
army  if  its  soldiers  kept  their  arms  and  equipment  at 
home. 

It  is  not  hard  to  see  the  ideal  that  James  Lord  is 
reaching  for.  And  it  is  a  just  ideal,  but  one  may 
suspect  that  an  army  that  conformed  with  his  idea^ 
would  not  be  an  army  at  all,  but  an  armed  mob. 
His  thought  is  for  the  members  of  the  trained,  armed 
force,  that  they  shall  not  be  subject  to  official  tyran- 
nies, nor  have  their  wills  subverted  to  the  uses  of 
worse  wills,  nor  be  compelled  to  serve  purposes  that 
they  disapprove. 

Very  well,  but  there  is  another  thought  to  be 
taken,  a  thought  for  the  community  at  large.  No 
one  who  has  reasonable  sense  is  going  to  make  an 
army  that  will  act  its  own  will.  There  is  enough  in- 
convenience in  the  world  from  people  who  do  as  they 
like,  without  gathering  them  into  regiments,  training 
them  in  military  exercises,  and  providmg  them  with 

259  , 


260  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

weapons  to  keep  at  home,  where  individually  they 
will  have  them  handy. 

An  army  is  a  servant.  Every  soldier  in  it,  from  the 
general  to  the  last  private,  is  a  servant.  Every  man 
jack  of  them  is  tliere  to  do,  not  what  he  will,  but 
what  is  ordered.  That  is  why  the  military  industry 
is  called  "the  service."  So  it  has  been  in  ail  effective 
armies;  so  it  must  be  so  long  as  armies  are;  and  as 
much  in  a  democratic  army  as  in  any  other. 

We  talk  so  much  about  liberty  and  free  speech,  and 
all  the  other  varieties  of  freedom,  that  it  may  seem 
to  be  a  defect  in  the  military  training  that  it  is  a 
training  to  service. 

On  the  contrary,  that  is  its  merit,  for  service  is 
immeasurably  the  highest  thing  that  man  attains  to. 
There  is  Scripture  for  that,  and  probably  it  was  an 
old,  recognized  truth  when  it  got  into  Scripture. 
Ich  Dien  on  the  crest  of  the  Black  Prince  is  only  a 
repetition  of  it.  It  is  not  that  man  ennobles  service, 
but  that  service  ennobles  man,  and  that  through  that 
door  every  man  who  would  be  great  must  come  to  his 
greatness. 

But  whom  shall  a  democratic  army  serve? 

The  people,  to  be  sure,  of  whom  it  is  a  part,  and  in 
whose  voice  it  speaks.  An  army,  any  kind  of  an 
army,  must  obey  the  state  and  the  officers  the  state 
gives  it.  If  it  gets  detached  from  its  state  as  Xeno- 
phon's  Ten  Thousand  did,  it  must  obey  the  officers 
it  gives  itself.  Unless  it  obej^  somebody,  it  isn't  an 
army,  but  a  mob,  and  except  temporarily  in  emer- 
gencies it  cannot  be  a  town  meeting. 

What  would  make  a  democratic  army  would  be, 
it  would  seem,  a  common  consent  to  discipline,  a 
brotherliness  in  service,  a  recognition  that  it  is  the 
office  thaX  one  obeys  rather  than  the  man  in  it,  and 
that  the  office  is  necessary.  But  we  need  not  grope 
about  after  the  constituents  of  a  democratic  army. 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  261 

for  there  is  at  least  one  that  we  can  examine.  The 
French  have  one.  It  exists  by  consent  and  con- 
trivance of  the  French  people.  It  is  brotherly,  it  is 
obedient,  and  any  one  who  questions  its  efficiency 
may  be  referred  to  Berlin.  If  we  want  to  know  how 
to  have  a  democratic  army,  we  can  ask  the  French.  ^/ 


April  21,  1916, 

THE  shock  of  all  crimes  wears  off  after  a  while. 
The  shock  of  the  Lusitania  was  tremendous. 
It  gradually  wore  away  in  discussion.  But, 
like  Villa's  attack  on  Columbus,  the  sinking  of  the 
Lusitania  was  an  insult  to  the  United  States,  and 
The  Warning  an  insult  with  a  purpose.  It  was  a  detail 
of  a  Shock  Qf  the  German  policy  of  *'f rightfulness," 
and  its  purpose  was  the  reverse  of  Villa's,  being, 
apparently,  not  to  get  us  into  a  war,  but  to  scare 
us  out. 

For  months  there  has  been  a  rising  sentiment  in 
these  States  that  that  German  purpose  was  succeed- 
ing. When  Villa  did  his  exploit  at  Columbus,  orders 
went  out  from  Washington  instantly;  not  notes 
merely,  but  orders.  Troops  took  the  field.  But 
what  orders  followed  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania  ? 
Was  there  a  real  effort  to  arm?  Was  the  army 
strengthened.''     Was  the  navy  strengthened .f' 

There  was  nothing  done  except  by  diplomatic 
negotiation.  Not  for  seven  months  or  more  was 
there  even  the  beginning  of  an  effort  to  create  a  force 
competent  to  back  the  notes.  The  shock  wore  off. 
The  Lusitania  case  gradually  declined  from  a  casus 
belli  into  a  matter  for  argument  and  discussion. 
With  every  new  note  the  credit  of  the  United  States 
wavered  a  little,  and  faithful  supporters  of  the 
administration  in  increasing  numbers  progressed  from 
patience  to  dismay  and  from  dismay  to  indignation. 
One  heard  it  said:  "I  stayed  with  Wilson  nine 
months,  but  nothing  happened,  nor  gave  prospect  of 
happening,  and  then  I  quit." 

262 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  263 

But  to  Villa  something  did  happen.  He  was 
pursued,  and  with  great  energy  and  in  the  face  of 
great  risks  and  perils.  Our  military  force  was  not 
really  equal  to  his  chastisement,  but  it  got  orders,  and 
it  undertook  it,  and  the  whole  country  has  been 
behind  that  undertaking  with  hardly  a  dissentient 
voice. 

So  it  would  have  been  behind  any  action  taken  on 
account  of  the  Lusitania.  It  backed  the  notes  till 
it  got  tired,  and  it  would  have  backed  instant  prep- 
aration to  support  the  notes.  And  it  will  still  back 
a  final  stand  in  that  matter,  for  still  the  Lusitania 
case  is  an  ulcer  in  the  American  inside,  and  still  the 
country  can  be  roused  to  submit  to  any  treatment 
necessary  to  cure  it. 

"Are  you  ready  for  the  test.^"  asks  our  President. 
"Have  you  the  courage  to  go  in?" 

Try  us,  sir.  If  you  are  ready  for  the  test;  if  you 
have  the  courage  to  go  in,  call  upon  us.  It  is  pretty 
late,  but  few  of  us  have  got  away.  We  are  still  here. 
We  are  unprepared,  it  is  true,  in  a  military  sense, 
but  in  a  spiritual  sense  we  could  rise  to  a  situation, 
and  in  an  economic  sense  we  are  capable  of  very 
much.  All  we  ask  is  orders.  For  them  we  have  to 
wait  on  government.  But  give  them  to  us  and  you 
will  see. 


"Business  as  usual,"  said  the  English  when  the 
war  began.  Now  people  say,  "War  as  usual." 
There  is  business,  too,  a  vast  deal  of  it;  but  the  great 
current  business  is  war.  It  goes  on  just  about  as 
usual:  the  back  and  forth  at  Verdun  with  its  length- 
ening butcher's  bill;  a  German  gain,  apparently,  in 
commercial  arrangements  with  Rumania;  activities 
on  the  Russian  front;  something  doing  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Trebizond,  and  reports,  not  very  clear,  of 
earnest  proceedings  on  a  limited  scale  about  Bagdad. 


264  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

A  good  many  people  of  influence  feel  that  the  war 
has  lasted  long  enough  already  for  the  instruction  of 
all  the  peoples  concerned,  and  ought  to  stop.  One 
such  person  is  Maximilian  Harden,  who  professes  to 
be  fully  satisfied  with  Germany's  prowess,  but  thinks 
that  peace  is  possible  and  that  every  one  should 
reach  for  it  before  all  the  warring  nations  have  been 
bled  quite  white. 

The  plight  of  the  world,  so  unexpectedly  appalling, 
has  prompted  some  enquirers  to  search  history  to 
discover  what  had  happened  before  in  historical 
times.  One  such  reader  who  had  been  getting  up 
Genghis  Khan  and  his  extremely  ruthless  and  destruc- 
tive conquest  of  most  of  Asia  only  seven  hundred 
years  ago,  was  left  speculating  whether  the  possibility 
of  that  sort  of  enterprise  had  really  passed  away  out 
of  the  world.  People  had  supposed  so  until  the  day 
the  Germans  crossed  the  Belgian  frontier,  but  now 
they  are  doubtful. 

There  are  times  when  this  world  seems  humdrum, 
but  in  reality  it  is  an  incurably  sporty  place,  and 
seems  never  to  settle  down,  except  to  rest  before 
rising  up  again  and  raising  more  hob  than  ever. 
One  gets  discouraged  about  it  as  a  place  of  residence, 
and  inclines  in  times  like  these  to  the  Rooseveltian 
attitude  that  treats  it  as  an  adventure,  to  be  taken 
on  the  run  and  enjoyed  for  its  vicissitudes.  In  the 
life  of  cattle,  to  be  slaughtered  is  a  normal  incident. 
It  is  getting  to  be  so  in  the  life  of  Europeans,  and 
fashions  shaped  in  Europe  may  usually  be  trusted  to 
penetrate  to  these  States.  People  who  dislike  that 
prospect  should  take  a  little  thought  with  Maximilian 
Harden  and  interest  themselves  in  stopping  the  war 
before  destruction  has  become  again  a  human  habit. 
If  staying  out  of  it  does  no  good,  it  will  be  in  order  to 
try  getting  in. 


May  ^,  1916. 

AT  THIS  writing  our  government  is  awaiting  a 
/-%  reply  from  the  German  Government  to  a  com- 
-*-  -^  mmiication  sent  through  Ambassador  Gerard, 
which  reviews  the  course  of  German  submarine  warfare 
'VnlyOne  and  our  government's  attitude  towards  it. 
Excuse  To  recites  in  detail  the  case  of  the  Sussex^  and 
^^  ^         winds  up  with  these  words: 

Unless  the  Imperial  Government  should  now  immediately 
declare  and  effect  an  abandonment  of  its  present  methods  of  sub- 
marine warfare  against  passenger  and  freight-carrying  vessels  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  can  have  no  choice  but  to  sever 
diplomatic  relations  with  the  German  empire  altogether.  This 
action  the  Government  of  the  United  States  contemplates  with 
the  greatest  reluctance,  but  feels  constrained  to  take  in  behalf  of 
humanity  and  the  rights  of  neutral  nations. 

Of  the  same  tenor  and  largely  in  the  same  words 
was  the  President's  speech  to  Congress  on  the  day 
(April  19th)  that  the  communication  went  forward. 
There  are  few  better  days  in  our  calendar  than  the 
anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Lexington,  and  few  better 
deeds  in  our  history  than  the  sending  of  that  notice 
to  Germany.  Our  people,  in  the  main,  are  delighted 
with  it;  our  friends  abroad  are  delighted.  France  is 
greatly  cheered  at  last  by  an  action  of  our  govern- 
ment. To  be  sure,  Mr.  Mann,  Republican  leader 
in  the  House,  betrayed  his  partisan  chagrin  by  un- 
seemly remarks,  and  Mr.  Bryan  rushed  from  St.  Louis 
to  Washington  to  rouse  Congress  against  war,  but 
accomplished  nothing  visible,  and  rushed  back  again. 
But  Mr.  Taft  and  3.1r.  Wickersham  support  the 
government  audibly,  the  Senate  passed  the  Cham- 

265 


^66  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

berlain  bill  providing  for  a  million  trained  soldiers, 
and  the  World  of  April  23d  came  out  with  the  sug- 
gestion that  since  Mr.  Wilson  had  done  so  much  that 
was  satisfactory  to  all  good  Republicans,  they  should 
make  him  their  candidate  for  President. 

And  perhaps  they  will:  perhaps  they  will;  or  vote 
for  him  anyway  when  the  time  comes,  no  matter 
whom  they  nominate.  It  all  depends  upon  what 
Mr.  Wilson  does  next,  and  next  after  that.  Some- 
times it  has  seemed  as  though  he  was  going  to  make  a 
reputation  as  a  pacifist  at  the  cost  of  the  American 
soul,  but  his  notice  to  Germany  allays  for  the  moment 
such  fears.  Everything  seems  to  depend  on  Mr. 
Wilson,  on  his  brains  and  his  character,  and,  as  it 
happens,  he  is  a  man  whom  very  few  people  even 
pretend  to  understand.  As  the  leader  of  the  Celes- 
tial party  he  acts  from  motives  which  are  a  stumbling 
block  and  foolishness  to  the  Carnals.  Some  excellent 
men  think  very  ill  of  him.  Some  shrewd  and  ex- 
perienced men  think  a  great  deal  better  of  his  brains 
than  they  do  of  his  Celestialism.  "Do  we  need  a 
Diaz.f^"  cries  Marse  Henry.  "He  (Roosevelt)  can 
wrap  the  flag  around  him.  He  can  rattle  the  drum- 
sticks. He  can  march  down  to  the  footlights.  He 
can  fire  the  hoss-pistols.  But  so  can  Woodrow  Wil- 
son." Yes,  he  can;  and  he  can  make  a  m.ighty  good 
speech,  and  when  he  thinks  of  the  right  thing  to  say 
he  can  say  it  admirably. 

But  is  he  a  doer  or  only  a  speaker?  He  is  tenacious 
to  get  what  he  wants,  but  in  this  great  world  crisis 
does  he  want  the  right  thing,  and  will  he  go  on  all  the 
way  to  get  it.^^ 

There  were  no  hoss-pistols  in  the  Sussex  note  and 
his  speech  to  Congress.  The  note  and  the  speech 
were  more  than  words.  They  were  actions,  too. 
But  will  he  stick.?  Will  he  go  on?  Men  ask,  who 
had  lost  all  hope  in  him;  good  men  and  true,  who 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  267 

want  nothing  but  bold  and  sturdy  leadership  straight 
down  the  path  of  duty.  There  is  a  great  backing  for 
Mr.  Wilson  if  he  can  win  it;  millions  of  men  anxious 
to  give  him  their  confidence,  but  holding  back  be- 
cause they  don't  understand  what  is  in  the  back  of 
his  mind  and  cannot  foresee  what  he  will  do. 

And  he  won't  do  much  of  anything  for  political 
effect.  Rather  his  tendency  is  to  delay  action  be- 
cause it  looks  too  much  like  hoss-pistols  and  the 
rattle  of  drumsticks.  He  may  be  a  politician,  doubt- 
less he  is,  but  at  least  he  is  not  a  cheap  politician. 

*'Only  one  excuse  to  fight,"  Mr.  Wilson  has  been 
saying,  "to  fight  for  humanity."  The  Sun  says  he 
cherishes  a  mistaken  idea;  '*that  he  is  not  President  of 
Humanity;  he  is  President  of  the  United  States." 
The  Tribune  jumps  at  the  chance  to  bid  him  "serve 
America  first." 

But  of  course  there  is  no  way  so  good  to  serve 
America  as  to  serve  humanity,  and  of  course  what 
best  serves  humanity,  especially  in  this  present 
crisis,  best  serves  America.  Doubtless  there  were 
Tribunes  in  Jerusalem  nineteen  hundred  and  odd 
years  ago  that  said,  "Save  the  Jews,  and  let  it  go  at 
that!"  But  that's  a  narrow  view.  When  was  there 
a  time  when  humanity  looked  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States  as  it  is  looking  now?  And  would  you 
have  him  look  the  other  way.'^  And  would  you  have 
him  say,  "I  am  President  only  of  the  United  States ! " 

The  great  fault  that  is  found  with  Mr.  Wilson  is 
that  he  has  seemed  too  much  to  do  that  very  thing; 
seemed  too  scrupulously,  too  parochially,  neutral. 
When  he  spoke  in  the  Sussex  note  of  action  "in 
behalf  of  humanity  and  the  rights  of  neutral  nations," 
that  was  the  line  to  take,  and  one  from  which  no 
sound  American  would  raise  a  finger  to  divert  him. 

The  nation,  despotic  king,  or  hierarchy,  which  substitutes  its 
own  selfish  interests  for  humanity,  shuts  itself  out  from  humanity. 


268  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

becomes  inhuman,  revives  and  worships  standards  of  the  Beast, 
and  heads  straight  for  perdition. 

So  says  Mr.  William  Roscoe  Thayer,  a  fairly  bitter 
critic  sometimes  of  President  Wilson,  but  not  a 
critic  of  his  concern  for  humanity  nor  of  the  Sussex 
note. 

All  that  we  can  possibly  do  for  humanity  will  bo 
done  for  the  best  possible  good  of  the  United  States. 
If  that  is  a  tenet  of  the  Celestials,  we  are  with  theni 
on  it  down  to  the  last  letter.  And  the  way  to  help 
humanity  just  now  is  to  put  a  crimp  in  Germany's 
barbaric  warfare  and  to  help  by  every  means  to  save 
the  world  from  the  demoniac  Kultur.  All  the  decent 
people  are  agreed  on  that — Taft,  Roosevelt,  Marse 
Henry,  Dr.  Eliot,  Congressman  Gardner — and  Henry 
Ford  will  come  in  as  soon  as  he  understands.  They 
differ  more  or  less  about  details,  but  we  shall  all  be 
togetherpresently;  Germany,  demon-driven  Germany, 
will  see  to  that. 


'"% 


May  4,  1916. 

THE  papers  report  that  in  Washington,  on 
April  10th,  Dr.  David  Jayne  Hill,  lately 
Ambassador  to  Germany,  treated  the  Navy 
League  Convention  to  a  vigorous  denunciation  of  the 
policy  (Mr.  Wilson's)  which  has  "caused  the  com- 
Remarks  pl^t^  loss  of  our  former  prestige  as  a  nation" 
from  and  made  our  government  "practically  neg- 
Monaco   \{gj^\Q  as  an  international  influence." 

Bad,  bad,  but  fairly  useful  Republican  doctrine  for 
immediate  use.  But  will  it  last.'^  Will  it  still  be  felt 
in  June,  in  July,  in  November,  in  March  of  next  year, 
that  American  prestige  is  knocked  on  the  head,  and 
that  our  influence  with  the  nations  has  evaporated  .^^ 

One  can't  be  sure  about  that.  Most  heads  in 
Europe  just  now  are  hot;  excusably  hot;  but  one 
man  who  seems  to  keep  pretty  cool  is  Prince  Albert  of 
Monaco.  He  claims  to  be  a  neutral  ruler,  and  though 
the  Germans  have  seized  and  fined  his  chateau  and 
estate  in  the  north  of  France,  he  doesn't  mind  that. 
For  he  is  a  rich  prince  with  a  principality  that  in- 
cludes a  valuable  gambling  privilege,  and,  on  the 
side,  he  is  a  scientist  of  distinction. 

He  doesn't  seem  to  think  we  are  so  bad.  He  is 
quoted  as  saying  to  a  newspaper  correspondent 
that  "the  only  chance  for  the  survival  and  future 
civilization  of  Europe  is  the  infusion  of  American 
blood  into  European  peoples."  In  that  way  he  hopes 
to  get  American  ideas  into  Europe.  European 
peoples,  he  says,  are  the  slaves  of  tradition. 

It  is  in  their  blood,  resisting  every  tendency  to  change.  They 
live,  as  it  were,  in  a  web  of  race  prejudices  and  customs  and  ideas 

269 


270  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

wMch  only  the  adoption  of  the  American  outlook  can  alter.  If 
this  change  does  not  take  place,  and  there  should  be  three  or  four 
more  wars  in  the  modern  style,  Europe  will  become  a  desert. 
No  country  has  done  more  for  the  progress  of  humanity  than 
America,  and  it  is  only  by  learning  from  America  that  there  can 
ever  be  such  a  thing  as  a  United  States  of  Europe. 

That  is  an  interesting  idea,  and  to  us  poor,  spirit- 
less, berated  creatures  of  course  it  is  consoling.  Pos- 
sibly we  are  not  yet  without  some  potential  value  to 
the  world.  Possibly,  by  staying  alive  and  minding 
our  job,  and  thinking  hard  and  doing  what  existing 
conflicts  of  American  opinion  permit  us  to  do,  we  may 
yet  demonstrate  that  continuance  of  even  our  exist- 
ence has  been  worth  while. 


May  11,  1916. 

THE  question  of  the  Lusitania  is  whether  any- 
thing can  be  wrong  which  Germany  at  any 
time  thinks  necessary  to  success.  By  the 
usages  of  international  law  it  is  a  crime  to  sink 
merchant  or  passenger  ships  without  taking  off  their 
The  Issue  of  crews  and  passengers.  In  defiance  of 
the  Lusiiania  this  rule,  a  German  submarine,  acting 
under  government  orders,  sank  the  Lusitania.  Over 
twelve  hundred  lives  were  lost,  including  many  wo- 
men and  children  and  more  than  a  hundred  citizens 
of  the  United  States.  That  happened  on  May  7th, 
a  year  ago. 

Our  government  did  not  break  at  once  with  Ger- 
many, but  informed  the  German  Government  that  it 
would  be  held  to  strict  accountability  for  this  pro- 
ceeding. It  has  been  holding  it  to  strict  accounta- 
bility ever  since.  It  has  exchanged  notes  with  the 
German  foreign  office,  and  then  more  notes.  Ger- 
many partially  agreed  to  abate  her  piratical  enter- 
prises and  conform  to  the  rules  of  international  law 
in  warfare,  but  she  has  not  kept  her  word.  Her 
promises  and  professions,  as  our  President  told  Con- 
gress, have  "in  fact  constituted  no  check  at  all  on 
the  destruction  of  ships  of  every  sort."  Again  and 
again,  as  Mr.  Wilson  said,  the  German  Government 
has  given  our  government  its  solemn  assurances  that 
at  least  passenger  ships  would  not  be  destroyed  with 
their  passengers  and  crews  aboard,  "and  yet  it  has 
again  and  again  permitted  its  undersea  commanders 
to  disregard  these  assurances  with  entire  impunity." 
Our  people  have  been  patient,  with  a  patience  that 

271 


272  THE  DIAHY  OF  A  NATION 

calls  rather  for  explanation  than  for  praise.  Ten  or 
twelve  millions  of  us  are  of  German  derivation  and 
swayed  by  German  sympathies.  Of  the  rest,  a 
serious  proportion  were  opposed  to  war  on  any 
grounds,  except  in  resistance  to  invasion.  There  re- 
mained, doubtless,  a  large  majority  ready,  and  more 
than  ready,  to  support  the  government  with  all  their 
energies,  but  bound  to  wait  until  the  government's 
position  was  defined  and  they  were  called  upon  to 
back  it.  Month  after  month  of  negotiation  passed, 
until  the  issue  began  to  grow  faint,  and  in  the  minds 
of  those  who  felt  it  to  be  vital  the  fear  began  to  stir 
that  our  case  would  be  lost  by  default.  Then  there 
began  a  defection  from  Mr.  Wilson.  In  despair  of  his 
meeting  the  situation  tho^e  of  his  supporters  who 
wanted  something  done  began  to  look  about  to  see 
who  else  there  might  be  to  turn  to.  Still  there  are 
those  who  doubt  that  he  has  it  in  him  to  act  with  due 
vigour  in  a  great  world  crisis.  Nevertheless,  his 
stand  for  military  preparation,  late  as  it  was  in  com- 
ing, was  right  and  was  welcomed;  his  speech  to 
Congress  and  his  note  to  Germany  on  April  19th  were 
admirable,  and  it  may  be  that  the  patience  of  his 
backers  is  to  be  rewarded  by  seeing  him  come  finally 
and  powerfully  to  the  scratch. 

So  far  as  words  go,  he  has  come  already.  Our 
position  could  hardly  have  been  better  put  than  he 
put  it  in  his  speech  of  April  19th.  Germany  may 
back  down,  suspend  her  piratical  warfare,  make 
amends,  stay  good  in  one  detail,  and  keep  the  diplo- 
matic doors  open  in  Washington  and  Berlin.  It  is 
possible,  if  the  German  Government  dare  do  it. 

The  trouble  is  that  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania, 
the  Arabic^  the  Sussex,  was  of  a  piece  with  the  whole 
German  plan  of  world  war,  f rightfulness,  and  world 
domination.  The  whole  scheme  was  atrocious,  a 
plan  based  on  worse  than  pagan  morals;  a  deadly 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 


273 


and  ruthless  ambition  to  crush  the  other  nations  by 
any  means  into  conformity  with  the  insane  Teutonic 
purpose.  To  abandon  her  abominable  submarine 
warfare  against  merchant  ships  is  virtually  for  Ger- 
many to  confess  that  she  can  never  realize  her  under- 
taking. It  would  be  admission  that  the  wheels  of  her 
portentous  machine  are  thrashing  and  rattling,  and 
that  the  whole  diabolical  mechanism  is  on  the  eve  of 
collapse. 

But  the  alternative  is  not  much  better.  It  is  to 
put  the  conscience  and  the  vast  resources  of  the 
United  States  frankly  on  the  Allies'  side,  where 
virtually  they  have  been  all  the  time,  and  where 
rightfully  they  belong. 

Germany  is  fighting  two  Gettysburgs  at  once,  one 
at  Verdun  and  one  at  Washington.  It  is  the  hope  of 
civilization  that  she  will  lose  them  both.  Our 
government  declares  that  to  sink  the  Lusitania  was  a 
crime.  If  Germany  admits  it  she  is  self -condemned. 
If  she  denies  it  it  devolves  upon  these  States  to  insure 
her  condemnation. 


May  18,  1916, 

IN  A  communication  to  our  government  that  pro- 
ceeded from  Berlin  on  May  4th,  the  German 
Government  sent  word  that  the  German  naval 
forces  had  received  the  following  orders,  to  wit: 

In  accordance  with  the  general  principles  of  visit,  search  and 

destruction  of  merchant  vessels  recognized  by  inter- 

An  Answer  ^q^[qj^qI   1^^^^^  such  vessels,   both  within  and   with- 

•''  out  the  area  declared  to  be  a  naval  war  zone,  shall 

not  be  sunk  without  warning,  without  saving   human  lives, 
unless  the  ships  attempt  to  escape  or  offer  resistance. 

These  orders  are  the  German  response  to  the 
American  note  of  April  20th,  which,  after  some  pre- 
liminary explanation,  said  to  the  German  Govern- 
ment: 

Unless  the  Imi>erial  Government  should  now  immediately 
declare  and  effect  an  abandonment  of  its  present  methods  of 
submarine  warfare  against  passenger  and  freight-carrying  vessels 
the  government  of  the  United  States  can  have  no  choice  but  to 
sever  diplomatic  relations  with  the  German  empire  altogether. 

The  orders  given  by  the  German  Government  seem 
to  meet  the  American  demand,  and  have  not  up  to 
this  writing  been  violated  that  we  know  of.  So 
Mr.  Gerard  still  remains  in  Berlin  and  Count  Von 
Bernstorif  in  Washington.  But  how  long  this  amic- 
able condition  will  continue  nobody  can  tell. 

There  was  much  more  to  the  German  communica- 
tion besides  what  is  above  quoted.  Some  of  it  was 
merely  tiresome;  some  of  it  was  rude,  and  there  were 

274 


THE  DIARY^OF  A  NATION  275 

passages  complaining  of  the  perverse  and  unfeeling 
conduct  of  Great  Britain,  alluding  to  "the  incontro- 
vertible right  to  freedom  of  the  seas,"  and  expressing 
confidence  that,  in  view  of  the  order  quoted,  the 
United  States  will  co-operate  with  Germany  to  restore 
the  said  freedom  of  the  seas,  and  insist  that  the  Brit- 
ish Government  shall  observe  the  rules  of  international 
law  as  specified  in  the  American  notes  of  December 
28,  1914,  and  November  3,  1915,  to  the  British  Gov- 
ernment. Otherwise,  it  said,  there  will  be  a  new 
situation  in  which  the  German  Government  "must 
reserve  to  itself  complete  liberty  of  decision." 

As  Life  goes  to  press,  the  papers  print  the  Presi- 
dent's response,  which,  as  one  would  expect,  is  an 
acceptance  of  the  new  German  orders  and  rejection 
of  everything  else  in  the  note.  That  leaves  it  to 
Germany  to  decide  when  the  "new  situation"  shall 
transpire,  and  what  to  do  to  meet  it.  It  is  a  con- 
dition of  unstable  diplomatic  equilibrium.  At  once, 
if  the  new  orders  are  violated,  we  shall  expect  to 
part  with  the  German  ambassador  and  welcome  home 
Mr.  Gerard.  Even  if  the  German  Government 
wishes  to  avoid  such  an  occurrence,  it  may  happen, 
and  is  not  unlikely  to  happen,  at  any  time,  and 
a  breach  of  diplomatic  relations  would  be  likely  to  be 
followed  by  our  getting  into  the  war.  We  are 
balancing,  therefore,  on  the  brink  of  war  with  Ger- 
many, and  that  means  a  new  factor  in  affairs,  and 
stimulates  all  the  peace  agencies  to  do  what  they  can 
for  peace  before  any  more  of  the  world  is  involved. 

Germany  undoubtedly  wants  peace.  She  is  still 
very  formidable  indeed  for  attack  or  defense,  but 
not  very  comfortable.  She  is  full  of  war  prisoners 
and  stolen  goods,  but  apparently  pretty  short  of 
food,  and  with  no  prospect  of  finding  relief  in  uni- 
versal conquest.  She  cannot  thrash  the  French  at 
Verdun;  she  has  her  hands  full  with  Russians  all  the 


276  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

way  from  the  Baltic  Sea  to  Trebizond,  and  when  she 
thrashes  them  it  does  her  no  particular  good,  since 
only  the  dead  ones  stay  thrashed,  and  there  are 
always  more.  She  can  kill  and  be  killed  a  long  time 
yet,  but  how  can  she  win,  while  the  French  are  so 
valiant  and  the  British  so  stubborn,  and  the  Russians 
keep  coming  and  coming?  A  year  ago  one  might 
have  expected  Germany  to  declare  for  frightfulness 
at  sea,  even  at  the  cost  of  a  break  with  us.  Virtually 
she  did  declare  for  it  when  she  sank  the  Lusitania. 
But  a  year  which  has  seen  many  German  military 
successes  and  several  failures  of  the  Allies  has 
made  a  great  difference.  She  does  not  want  another 
fighting  nation  on  her  hands,  [not  even  the  United 
States.  She  wants  peace,  and  says  so,  and  her 
need  of  it  is  so  obvious  that  we  all  believe  her. 

But  how  can  she  get  peace .^  Gorged  with  the 
looms  of  Lille,  the  machines  of  Belgium  and  Northern 
France,  the  loot  of  chateaux,  the  poor  spoil  of  French 
cottages — gorged  with  plunder,  drenched  with  blood, 
blood,  blood — blood  of  Belgians,  blood  of  French- 
men, blood  of  British,  of  Russians  by  the  million, 
of  Poles,  Serbs,  Italians,  Armenians,  and  even  Amer- 
icans; blood  of  women  and  children  an  unnumbered 
throng — how  can  the  dripping  Teuton,  lately  so  fierce, 
find  peace? 

He  can  have  it  at  a  price,  for,  of  course,  all  Europe 
wants  it  pitifully,  but  he  cannot  now  get  much  of  a 
bargain,  and  terms  are  not  growing  any  easier  before 
Verdun.  If  the  war  had  had  an  aim  with  definite 
bounds  to  it,  if  it  had  not  been  sullied  with  such 
terrible  brutalities,  and  had  not  bred  such  festering 
hatreds,  peace  would  have  been  more  practicable 
now.  But  it  was  a  war  for  world-power  or  downfall, 
and  such  a  war  it  is  very  hard  to  call  off  till  one  side 
or  the  other  is  beaten. 


May  25,  1916. 

WE  DON'T  begin  to  have  troops  enough 
to  handle  the  Mexican  job,  which  is 
liable  to  take  any  turn  any  minute.  We 
may  be  in  a  state  of  war  with  Germany  any  day  at 
four  o'clock,  or  before  breakfast  or  after  dinner,  and 
just  what  that  would  mean  we  do  not  know.  But  we 
The  see  the  coasts  stripped  of  regular  troops,  the  few 
Army  there  are,  to  guard  the  Texas  border;  we  have 
seen,  actually,  the  coast  artillery  going  off  to  the 
Rio  Grande,  and  as  late  as  May  13th  we  read  in  the 
paper  that,  after  three  weeks  of  conference,  the  House 
was  still  haggling  hard;  that  the  Fordite  congressmen 
from  the  Middle  West  were  against  much  army,  and 
that  the  prospect  was  that  the  Senate  provision  for 
250,000  real  soldiers  would  be  cut  down  to  a  minimum 
of  175,000. 

We  know  at  this  writing  that  the  conference  did 
better  than  that,  agreeing  upon  a  regular  army  of 
206,000,  capable  of  being  expanded  in  time  of  need, 
by  order  of  the  President,  to  254,000  men.  Senator 
Chamberlain  calls  the  conference  measure  "an  ex- 
cellent bill,"  and  his  opinion  is  to  be  respected. 
The  volunteer  reserve  army  that  the  Senate  bill 
called  for  is  lost,  but  the  National  Guard  is  to  be 
federalized,  and  if  recruited  to  its  maximum  strength 
of  800  men  to  a  Congressional  district,  will  provide  a 
reserve  army  of  425,000  men. 

This  reserve  is,  of  course,  at  present  three-fourths 
paper.  How  much,  if  anything,  it  will  amount  to 
cannot  be  estimated.  The  best  qualified  judges  seem 
not  to  be  sanguine  of  the  prospect  of  making  a  de- 

277 


278  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

pendable  defense  of  the  National  Guard,  but  a  new 
spirit  in  the  country  may  accompHsh  the  impossible, 
even  in  that.  For  the  country  does  seem  now  to 
have  waked  up  to  the  need  of  military  preparation. 
Mr.  Root  feels  "sure  that  war  is  coming  to  this 
country";  Colonel  Roosevelt  confidently  expects  the 
deluge  as  a  consequence  of  Mr.  Wilson's  sins;  but  the 
most  significant  evidence  so  far  offered  of  the 
people's  mood  was  the  parade  in  New  York  on  May 
13th  wherein  150,000  persons  marched  to  record  their 
conviction  that  we  need  to  look  alive  in  military  and 
naval  matters  and  do  it  right  off,  and  several  million 
people  looked  on  at  them  and  approved  and  ap- 
plauded. 

Do  it,  gentlemen  of  Congress;  do  it  adequately,  do 
it  effectively,  and  do  it  now.  It  is  awfully  late  at 
best  to  be  doing  it.  The  Mexican  situation  speaks 
for  itself;  the  other  complication  may  become  vocif- 
erous any  moment.  If  we  have  to  try  to  conduct 
military  operations  with  untrained,  unseasoned  troops 
it  will  be  very  costly  in  life  and  health.  If  we  can't 
act  betimes,  we  should  act  as  soon  after  as  possible. 
Do  it  now,  gentlemen. 


June  8,  1916. 

THESE  are  eventful  days.  On  the  27th  of 
May,  for  example,  2,500  citizens  went  down 
to  Oyster  Bay  to  express  their  need  for  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt;  Judge  Hughes  continued  not  to  say 
anything,  and  President  Wilson  made  a  speech. 
Mr.  Wilson  It  was  an  interesting  speech.  The  Presi- 
Makesa  dent  addressed  the  League  to  Enforce 
Speech  Peace,  and  said,  speaking  for  the  govern- 
ment, and  with  expressed  confidence  that  he  spoke 
the  mind  and  wish  of  the  American  people,  that 
the  United  States  is  willing  to  become  a  partner 
in  any  feasible  association  of  nations  formed  to 
reahze  and  secure  these  three  fundamental  things 
that  we  beheve,  to  wit:  that  (1)  every  people  has  a 
right  to  choose  the  sovereignty  under  which  they 
shall  hve;  that  (2)  the  small  states  of  the  world  have  a 
right  to  enjoy  the  same  respect  for  their  sovereignty 
and  territorial  integrity  that  the  big  ones  expect; 
and  (3)  that  the  world  has  a  right  to  be  free  from 
every  disturbance  of  its  peace  that  has  its  origin  in 
aggression  and  disregard  of  the  rights  of  peoples  and 
nations. 

The  pith  of  this  deliverance  is  that,  in  President 
Wilson's  opinion,  the  United  States  is  willing  and 
ready  to  combine  with,  other  nations  to  secure  the 
peace  of  the  world.  That  means  abandonment  of 
our  old  poHcy  of  flocking  by  ourselves  and  keeping  out 
of  trouble,  and  of  course  that  is  important.  The 
President,  like  Mr.  Taft,  Mr.  Root,  President  Lowell, 
and  many  other  eminent  characters,  approves  and  sup- 
ports the  main  idea  of  the  League  to  Enforce^Peace. 

279 


280  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

Is  Mr.  Wilson's  speech  to  be  the  Democratic  plat- 
form? It  is  very  interesting  platform  matter,  and 
the  mere  statement  of  it  by  the  head  of  our  govern- 
ment breaks  a  good  deal  of  international  ice. 

What  is  the  Republican  platform  going  to  make 
of  it?  Mr.  Wilson  has  taken  the  bull  by  the  horns. 
Here  is  a  matter  that  we  have  all  been  tallving  about 
since  the  war  began,  and  nothing  done.  Now  he 
asks  us,  virtually,  to  back  him  up  in  putting  the 
country  into  an  international  combination.  He 
adopts  as  definitely  as  he  can  a  plan  endorsed  in  a 
general  way  by  Mr.  Taft  and  Mr.  Root,  and  does 
it  not  only  ten  days  before  the  Republican  conven- 
tion, but  at  a  time  when  an  outbreak  of  peace  talk 
makes  it  seem  suitable  to  define  the  American  posi- 
tion. Will  the  Republicans  set  themselves  to  declare 
that  it  is  not  the  American  position,  or  will  they  talk 
about  something  else?  It  makes  for  a  shifting  of 
interest  from  the  Republican  candidate  to  the  Re- 
publican platform.  It  leaves  the  good  Colonel 
walking  on  his  hands.  The  people  who  want  him, 
and  who  go  with  brass  bands  to  Oyster  Bay  to  say  so, 
want  him  because  they  want  something  done,  and 
think  he  will  do  it.  But  here's  Mr.  Wilson  coming 
out  as  an  advocate  of  a  great  American  exploit  in 
behalf  of  political  and  economical  security  for  all 
the  world! 

What  will  Mr.  Justice  Hughes  think  of  it?  W^ill 
he,  too,  want  to  read  the  Republican  platform  before 
he  concerns  himself  about  who  the  Republican  candi- 
date shall  be?  Will  he,  too,  wonder  in  the  privacy 
of  his  mind  what  other  cards  the  Schoolmaster  may 
have  up  his  sleeve  and  what  chances  he  may  have  to 
play  them? 


June  22,  1916. 

y4  FTER  all,  the  Republicans  did  not   nominate 
f-\     Henry  Ford. 
-^  -^      Nor  yet  the  Colonel. 

They  selected  Justice  Hughes. 

There  are  voters  who  are  disappointed  because  the 
Hughes  Colonel  was  not  nominated  by  the  Repub- 
Nominated  licans.  One  such  person  was  asked,  *'But 
were  you  ready  to  vote  against  Wilson.^^"  "No," 
he  said,  "but  my  feelings  needed  expression." 

There  are  many  voters,  undoubtedly,  whose 
feehngs  needed  an  expression  that  only  the  nomina- 
tion of  the  Colonel  would  have  given  them.  Not  all 
of  them  were  ready  to  vote  for  him,  but  they  had  a 
sense  of  having  suppressed  too  long  their  reasonable 
emotions,  and  longed  to  holler  for  the  Allies  and 
T.  R.,  no  matter  how  they  voted  when  the  time  came. 
Perhaps  the  enormous  noisiness  of  the  Progressive 
convention  was  a  reaction  from  all  the  holding-in 
of  the  past  two  years. 

To  be  sure,  the  Progressives  did  nominate  the 
Colonel,  but  at  this  writing  he  has  not  accepted  that 
nomination,  and  probably  will  not  accept  it.  How 
can  he.'^  He  wants  to  beat  Wilson.  Last  time  he 
wanted  to  beat  Taft,  and  went  about  it  the  right 
way.  But  to  split  the  Republican  vote  again  is  not 
the  way  to  beat  Wilson.  The  way  to  do  that  is  to 
induce  Bro.  Bill  Bryan  to  get  up  a  pacifico-prohibi- 
tionist  bolt,  and  seduce  the  Democratic  goats  from 
their  allegiance.  But  it  does  not  look  to  be  a  good 
year  for  that. 

Judge  Hughes  stands  for  as  much  of  the  best  and 

[281 


282  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

as  little  of  the  worst  that  is  in  the  Republican  party 
as  any  man  that  could  have  been  named.  He  ought 
to  give  us  a  high-level  campaign.  He  will  be  the 
chief  advocate  of  the  cause  of  the  Republican  party 
before  the  court  of  the  people,  and  no  doubt  he  will 
say  with  vigour  and  precision  all  that  is  to  be  said 
on  his  side. 

The  Tribune  says  it  will  support  Mr.  Hughes  be- 
cause it  thinks  he  will  make  a  better  President  than 
Mr.  Wilson,  but  that  "certain  principles  which  it 
believed  to  be  vital  in  American  life"  are  not  to  be 
found  in  the  Republican  platform  nor  in  the  state- 
ment issued  by  Mr.  Hughes  after  nomination.  The 
foremost  champion  of  those  principles,  it  says,  was 
beaten. 

That  will  be  the  mood  of  many  people.  It  is  the 
mood  of  our  friend  above  quoted  whose  feelings 
needed  to  be  expressed.  There  is  an  immense  emo- 
tion in  this  country  in  favour  of  the  cause  and  man- 
ners of  the  Allies  in  the  war  and  against  the  cause  and 
methods  of  the  Germans,  to  which  Mr.  Wilson's 
administration  has  never  given  expression.  If  the 
Republicans  could  have  agreed  on  the  Colonel  it 
would  have  lifted  the  lid  off  this  boiling  pot.  But 
Mr.  Hughes  will  hardly  lift  it.  Neither  is  there  any- 
thing in  the  Republican  program  that  offers  even  so 
much  relief  to  these  bubbling  feelings  as  may  come 
out  of  Mr.  Wilson's  endorsement  of  the  League  to 
Enforce  Peace,  if  that  is  pushed  to  the  front  in  the 
Democratic  platform.  It  may  be  that  the  war  is 
approaching  its  end,  and  that  the  eight  months  still 
left  in  any  event  to  Mr.  Wilson  will  cover  the  pre- 
liminaries of  the  rearrangement  of  the  world.  That 
possibility  makes  our  whole  presidential  campaign 
more  than  usually  a  gamble.  The  end  of  the  war 
will  neither  be  advanced  nor  deferred  to  suit  either  of 
our  campaign  committees.     It  will  come  when  it 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  283 

comes,  but  we  shall  probably  know  before  November 
whether  the  war  is  going  over  another  winter,  and 
that  will  affect  votes  here. 

Next  to  the  war  the  influence  most  liable  to  affect 
the  campaign  and  election  is  a  possible  disposition 
of  the  North  and  West  to  resume  control  of  the  coun- 
try. The  South  has  had  it  now  since  1913,  and  has 
brought  out  some  good  men  and  some  very  poor  ones. 
Bryan,  not  a  Southerner,  was  the  most  mischievous. 
Daniels,  a  Southerner,  the  most  offensive.  If  the 
West  is  through  with  Bryan,  and  the  Republicans 
and  Progressives  really  get  together,  Mr.  Wilson  may 
be  beaten.  But  he  will  not  be  easy  to  beat,  and  he 
will  not  sit  still  between  now  and  November. 


It  is  a  little  too  soon  to  say  that  Kitchener  died  as 
Nelson  did,  in  the  moment  of  victory,  but  something 
like  that  is  the  feeling  about  him.  Nelson  did  not 
go  till  he  had  done  his  work,  and  one  feels  that 
Kitchener's  work  was  done  also.  If  anybody  saved 
England  it  was  Kitchener.  He  had  not  wasted  a 
minute  since  the  first  of  August,  1914. 

Nowadays  Great  Britain  abounds  in  character, 
developed  and  hardened  by  the  war.  But  when  the 
war  began,  trained  character  of  the  requisite  temper 
was  scarce.  That  was  when  Kitchener  was  invalu- 
able. He  had  it,  and  had  it  ready,  and  every  one 
knew  it.  Technically,  he  was  worth  a  vast  deal, 
for  he  knew  what  was  wanted  and  how  to  get  it, 
and  had  great  powers  of  application,  ^iorally,  he 
was  worth,  perhaps,  even  more.  He  stood  up  like 
a  beacon.  When  Britain  cried,  "We  want  soldiers," 
she  was  able  to  continue — "but  we've  got  one,  any- 
way." And  in  Kitchener  she  did  have  the  nucleus 
of  an  army. 


284  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

England  is  already  fairly  full  of  memorials  to  dead 
soldiers.  From  Waterloo  to  the  Boer  War  the  tab- 
lets tell  of  the  heroic  dead.  When  the  present  war 
is  over,  how  many,  many  more  there  will  be!  And 
the  tallest  monument  of  all  will  be  to  Kitchener! 
So  it  seems  now.  If  this  v/ar  has  produced  a  third 
after  Wellington  and  Nelson  who  was  ready  at  the 
pinch  for  England,  it  was  Kitchener. 


June  29,  1916. 

IF  WE  must  have  trouble  by  wholesale  with  Car- 
ranza,  this  is  a  good  time  to  have  it.  Nothing 
is  happening  to  us  just  at  this  moment  in  Europe 
that  requires  military  exertions.  We  are  much 
worked  up  about  the  duty  of  military  preparation 
Mexico  Our  ^^^  have  lately  passed  laws  that  look  to 
Training  make  a  more  serviceable  reliance  of  the 
Field  militia.     Now  it  is    as   though    Carranza 

was  offering  us  a  training  field  for  martial  exercises. 
We  shall  find  out,  first,  what  militia  troops  we  can 
really  put  into  the  field,  what  training  they  will 
need,  and  what  equipment  can  be  provided  for 
them.  We  can  practise  transportation  and  all  the 
details  of  spending  money  on  an  army.  We  can 
find  out  how  many  machine  guns  we  have  now%  and 
whether  the  Mexicans  (as  is  asserted)  have  several 
times  as  many  as  we  have.  One  reads  alreadj^  that 
Mexico  can  call  out  about  half  a  million  valuable, 
seasoned  troops.  That  is  doubtless  four-fifths  exag- 
geration, but  we  can  find  out  about  it,  and  that  will 
be  excellent  practice.  Considered  as  a  preparatory 
exercise,  this  flurry  with  Mexico  could  hardly  have 
come  at  a  more  suitable  time. 

A  drawback  is  that  by  the  almanac  this  is  summer, 
and  Mexico  is  pretty  hot.  Nevertheless,  this  sum- 
mer is  the  best  time  for  this  exercise,  because  in  this 
period  between  presidential  nominations  and  election 
the  zeal  and  patriotism  of  all  politicians  are  at  the 
hottest.  The  four  months  now  beginning  constitute 
the  quadrennial  season  of  appeal  to  the  people;  a 
season  in  which  no  administration  that  has  put  its 

285 


286  THE  DIARY  O^  A  NATION 

hand  to  the  plow  can  afford  to  turn  back,  and  in 
which  no  out-party  can  hope  to  get  in  except  by  show- 
ing more  zeal  for  the  national  welfare  than  the  in- 
party. 

The  campaign  needed  some  enlivenment.  The 
platforms  were  too  much  alike  to  offer  any  sharp  issue 
of  public  policy,  and  it  has  seemed  to  be  much  the 
same  with  the  candidates.  In  all  platforms  the 
points  that  are  most  emphasized  are  Americanism 
and  preparedness.  Democrats  and  Republicans  as 
represented  in  the  conventions  seemed  to  think  alike 
on  these  matters,  and  the  contest  was  to  see  who 
could  say  so  hardest.  The  most  interesting  novelty 
in  either  platform  was  the  Democratic  suggestion, 
transplanted  from  Mr.  Wilson's  speech  before  the 
League  to  Enforce  Peace,  that  "the  time  has  come 
when  it  is  the  duty  of  the  United  States  to  join  with 
the  other  nations  of  the  world  in  any  feasible  associa- 
tion" to  insure  due  consideration  for  small  states, 
guard  the  world's  peace,  and  safeguard  commerce. 

That  is  really  a  forward-looking  declaration.  Bro. 
Bryan  says  there  is  nothing  in  it  because  "only  a 
'  feasible  association '  is  advocated,  and  no  association 
will  be  found  feasible  that  requires  this  country  to 
entangle  itself  in  the  quarrels  of  Europe."  But  Bro. 
Bill  is  not  a  great  political  influence  this  year,  and  his 
mud-turtle  conception  of  peace  by  pulling  your  head 
into  your  shell  has  had  its  turn  and  will  not  be  dan- 
gerous again.  Very  different  is  the  estimate  of  Mr. 
A.  G.  Gardiner  of  the  London  News  of  this  suggestion 
which  has  now  received  the  Democratic  endorsement. 
He  describes  it  as  "opening  a  new  chapter  in  the 
history  of  civilization"  and  giving  Europe  a  hope  to 
be  saved  from  recurrences  of  self-destruction  which 
by  itself  it  cannot  hope  to  avert. 

This  is  the  biggest  idea  the  conventions  have 
yielded — the  idea,  not  to  force  peace  now  on  the 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  287 

warring  nations  before  they  are  ready  for  it,  but  to 
take  a  hand  in  world  protection  after  this  war  is 
fought  out.  If  we  are  to  count  for  anything  in  that 
direction  we  must  demonstrate  that  we  have  in  us 
due  ginger  and  due  potentiaHties  of  destructive 
activity.  No  one  who  cannot  demonstrate  potential 
efficiency  in  destruction  can  hope  to  be  much  re- 
spected just  now  as  a  factor  in  averting  destruction. 
That  is  the  main  excuse  for  mihtary  preparation, 
which  in  itseK  lacks  attraction.  There  are  better 
ways  of  having  fun  than  soldiering,  and  more  pro- 
ductive employments  for  time  and  strength,  but  so 
long  as  the  world's  peace  continues  to  be  a  balance 
of  destructive  energies,  we  should  stand  in  with  due 
weight  to  restore  and  keep  that  balance. 

The  inconvenience  and  fatuity  and  unprofitable- 
ness of  habitual  soldiering  on  any  extended  scale 
would  dreadfully  bore  our  people  and  make  them 
want  to  have  it  over,  and  blow  up  all  the  war  in  the 
world,  once  for  all.  They  would  like  military  ser- 
vice no  better  than  France  or  England  like  it,  and 
if  they  once  seriously  set  out  to  help  abate  it,  the 
effort  may  be  important.  Switzerland  drudges 
through  her  valuable  protective  w^ar  exercises,  and 
bears  the  bother  and  cost  of  it  because  she  has  to. 
But  Switzerland  is  a  little  country  with  big  neigh- 
bours. The  United  States  is  not,  and  never  will  be, 
in  her  position. 

Mr.  Gardiner  of  London  (above  quoted),  a  publi- 
cist who  is  perhaps  more  interesting  than  authorita- 
tive, speaks  very  seriously  of  the  United  States. 
"Let  us  be  done,"  he  says,  "with  foolish  sneers  at 
America.  Let  us  understand  that  in  her  the  future 
has  to  reckon  with  the  greatest  power  on  the  face 
of  the  globe."  It  seems  to  Mr.  Gardiner  that  this 
country  is  waking  up.  He  has  seen  his  country,  as 
unmilitary  as  ours,  turn  into  a  nation  of  armed  men 


288  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

in  a  few  months.  "And  what  England  has  done 
America  can  do."  But  behind  our  activities  he  sees 
"an  idea  so  sane,  so  full  of  hope,  that  distracted 
Europe  might  be  expected  to  seize  its  promise  as  a 
shipwrecked  sailor  a  raft — the  idea  that  the  power  of 
America  should  be  used  to  deliver  humanity  from  the 
toils"  and  win  for  the  affairs  of  men  the  arbitrament 
not  of  force,  but  of  justice. 

Perhaps  Mr.  Gardiner  is  dreaming;  perhaps  Mr. 
Wilson  has  been  dreaming;  perhaps  the  Democrats 
at  St.  Louis  were  dreaming  when  they  put  that 
"feasible  association"  plank  into  their  platform. 
But  at  least  it  is  a  pleasant  dream,  and  a  good  change 
from  the  prevalent  nightmares.  And  all  this  matter 
of  Mexico  works  in  well  with  it.  Everything  that 
starts  us  along  in  our  exercises  and  gets  us  working 
together;  that  counts  us,  disciplines  us,  and  gets  us 
used  to  duty;  increases  the  possibility  of  our  com- 
petence to  do  a  really  good  rescue  job  of  a  tortured 
world.  Mexico  is  nothing,  except  that  it  is  a  timely 
task.  But  for  the  United  States  to  find  its  legs 
and  stand  on  them,  and  be  able  to  run  on  them  if 
the  time  comes,  is  everything.  Every  one  who  is 
called  to  duty  in  Mexico  should  look  beyond  Mexico. 
Mexican  rehabilitation  is  something  to  be  taken  in 
our  stride  (if  we  were  not  so  out  of  form).  It  is  a 
detail.  It  is  most  important  now  for  its  possibilities 
of  training.  Egypt  trained  Kitchener;  South  Africa 
trained  the  whole  British  Empire.  Mexican  per- 
versities may  train  us  a  little  and  help  our  prepara- 
tion to  be  serviceable  with  others  to  a  world  dis- 
traught. It  is  not,  of  course,  that  we  need  trained 
armies  with  which  to  intervene  in  Europe,  but  that 
unless  we  make  ourselves  safe  and  formidable  at 
home,  we  can  hardly  hope  to  be  useful  abroad. 


July  6f  1916, 

THERE  has  been  a  kind  of  intermission  of  po- 
litical discourse.  The  colleges  have  been  com- 
mencing, and  that  has  been  a  distraction. 
What  was  necessary  to  say  about  the  political  con- 
ventions has  been  said,  and  at  this  writing  there  have 
been  as  yet  no  new  disclosures  of  political 
attitude.  Mr.  Hughes  has  been  talking 
it  over  with  the  chiefs  of  his  parties,  arranging 
his  summer,  bestowing  his  presence  at  commence- 
ment on  the  delighted  university  that  bore  him,  and 
otherwise  preparing  to  get  ready.  Mr.  Roosevelt 
has  been  thinking  it  over,  repelling  or  soothing  his 
more  belligerent  friends,  and  (rumour  says)  pre- 
paring the  letter  in  which  he  is  coming  out  for  Hughes. 
Mr.  Wilson  has  been  working  on  his  job,  which  is 
particularly  steady  company  for  him  since  the  Mexi- 
can complication  has  been  running  so  much  to  fire- 
works. Every  one  else  who  takes  a  human  interest 
in  human  affairs  watches  the  headlines  in  the  papers 
to  see  the  last  guess  about  what  has  happened  across 
the  border.  Civil  War  memories  are  revived  in  the 
minds  of  elderly  people  by  the  sight  of  regiments 
marching  through  the  streets.  Younger  people  recall 
the  Spanish  War,  and  parents  of  sons  in  the  ranks 
wonder  how  much  safer  their  offsprings  are  than  the 
recruits  of  '98.  The  calling  out  of  the  militia  is  dis- 
turbing both  to  business  and  to  society.  Youths  leave 
their  employments  right  in  the  busy  season;  honey- 
moons are  interrupted ;  engagements  that  were  hang- 
ing fire  come  out  with  bangs;  weddings  are  rushed 
ahead  while  bridegrooms  tarry.     In  spite  of  Carrizal, 

289 


290  .-  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

we  cannot  take  our  war  prospects  very  seriously  yet, 
but  the  mobilization  of  the  militia  is  a  fact  and  speaks 
for  itself.  The  armories  are  full  of  business;  there 
are  men  in  khaki  always  in  sight. 

To  see  so  many  able-bodied  young  men  diverted 
from  their  bread-winning  labours  is  a  shock  to  the 
thrifty,  but  one  to  which  it  seems  high  time  that  we 
all  got  used.  Let  us  hope  the  sight  is  going  to  be 
distributed  over  the  country  as  evenly  as  possible,  so 
that  the  cities  of  the  East  may  not  be  the  only  ones  to 
benefit  by  it.  But  it  is  not  possible  to  spread  it  out 
anything  like  as  evenly  as  might  be  done  in  a  country 
which  had  universal  military  service.  When  our 
Federal  Government  calls  on  the  militia  to  perform  a 
national  duty  it  has  to  take  the  necessary  regiments 
where  it  can  find  them,  from  the  States,  that  is, 
that  have  regiments  that  are  approximately  fit  to  go. 
In  the  present  case  that  means  predominantly  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  states.  And  in  those  and  all  other 
States  the  militia  includes  not  all  the  young  men  of  a 
certain  age,  but  only  those  who  thought  they  had  a 
military  duty  to  the  country  and  came  forward  to 
discharge  it.  So  by  our  present  system  the  burden 
of  military  service  falls  very  unequally.  It  is  sus- 
tained by  the  dutiful  and  neglected  by  the  busy,  the 
inconsiderate,  and  the  selfish.  The  more  credit  to 
those  who  bear  it,  but  the  system  is  not  fair.  It  in- 
volves very  serious  hardships  to  some  men  who  are 
called  out,  and  lets  off  thousands  who  might  much 
more  reasonably  go.  The  defense  of  the  country 
should  not  rest  on  so  inequitable  a  foundation  as  that. 

People  ask  you  if  you  think  the  war  will  end  this 
summer.  Not  being  in  the  confidence  of  the  Al- 
mighty you  don't  know,  but  if  the  last  impression  you 
got  from  the  newspaper  was  favourable  to  an  early 
peace  you  say  you  think  it  will. 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 


291 


It  is  a  subject  on  which  thought  does  not  help 
much.  In  such  matters  some  rehef  sometimes  comes 
by  betting.  The  Boston  man  who  bet  five  hundred 
dollars  even  that  the  war  will  still  be  proceeding  in 
November,  1917,  should  have  had  odds — don't  you 
think? — at  least  two  to  one. 


July  IS,  1916. 

COLONEL  ROOSEVELT  declines  the  Pro- 
gressive nomination  and  tells  his  late  Bull- 
Moose  brethren  that  Mr.  Hughes  "is  be- 
yond all  comparison  fitter  to  be  President  than  Mr. 
The  Colonel  Wilson,"  and  that  they  must  all  get  out  and 
Declines       work  and  vote  for  Hughes. 

Some  of  them  will;  a  good  many  of  them  won't. 
But  it  is  impossible  not  to  smile  at  the  Colonel's 
recommendation  of  another  presidential  candidate. 
What  the  Colonel  does  not  know  about  picking  Presi- 
dents would  fill  many  books — indeed  has  filled  them. 
The  histories  of  American  politics  in  the  last  eight 
years  owe  much  of  their  content  to  this  great  gap  in 
the  Colonel's  knowledge.  He  laiows  all  about  birds; 
all  about  beasts;  a  great  deal  about  plants,  minerals, 
geography,  and  many  other  branches;  he  can  box  the 
compass,  wield  the  big  stick,  make  peace,  make  war, 
discover  rivers,  fascinate  everybody,  read  everything 
and  remember  it  all,  but  he  is — and  he  must  admit  it 
— the  worst  judge  of  presidential  timber  that  ever 
lived.  He  picked  Taft,  and  repented  with  wails  and 
execrations.  To  make  amends  he  elected  Wilson. 
No  better  suited!  Taft,  in  his  opinion,  was  most  of 
what  could  be  bad  in  the  White  House,  and  Wilson  is 
the  rest.  And  now  he  says  that  Hughes  is  better 
than  Wilson! 

Go  to,  dear  Colonel!  You  don't  know  anything 
about  Presidents.  You  who  have  never  loved  but 
one  will  never  love  another.  Name  all  the  birds, 
physic  the  cat,  instruct  the  growing  plants,  teach  his 
business  to  the  cop,  or  the  sailor,  or  the  sage,  but 

292 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  293 

when  it  comes  to  making  Presidents,  oh,  please  hold 
off  and  let  Nature  take  her  course.  If  we  go  and 
elect  Judge  Hughes  on  your  recommend,  what  will 
happen?  Whose  legs  will  be  sticking  out  of  the  ash- 
barrel  back  of  your  house  within  a  year  after  the  next 
inauguration?  The  legs,  to  be  sure,  of  the  wax 
figure  of  Judge  Hughes,  sent  by  him  to  Oyster  Bay 
as  a  tribute  of  obligation  and  regard.  Into  the  ash- 
barrel  it  will  go,  duster-end  first.  Can't  you  just  see 
those  poor  legs.  Colonel? 

It  was  a  joke  that  the  Colonel  should  recommend 
Mr.  Hughes,  but  what  else  could  he  do?  One  may 
grin — how  can  any  one  help  it.^ — but  it  was  the  only 
way. 

And  now  if  the  Colonel  raises  an  army  and  goes 
off  to  Mexico  to  prove  that  Wilson  is  a  mere  lean 
Taf t  and  a  curse  to  the  country,  who  can  blame  him ! 
To  have  an  army  he  would  need  a  government 
license,  and  it  is  not  certain  our  present  administra- 
tion would  give  him  one.  But  Carranza  might, 
and  he  might  be  financed  by  the  Bible  Society  or 
Mr.  Perkins  or  the  Church  Missions,  as  a  pacifica- 
tory influence  in  Mexico,  and  undertake  as  a  de- 
tached philanthropist  (with  machine  guns)  details 
of  regeneration  which  a  formal  government  like  ours 
could  hardly  compass  without  a  preliminary  war. 

The  way  to  keep  order  in  Mexico  is  to  hire  in  all 
the  bandits  and  make  "rurales"  of  them.  So  Diaz 
did.  But  now  they're  all  out  of  hand,  and  foraging, 
every  squad  for  itself,  to  the  ruin  of  the  country. 
Somebody  has  got  to  round  them  up,  hang  the  worst 
of  the  bad  ones,  and  give  a  chance  for  useful  service 
to  those  who  are  merely  hungry.  Somehow  there 
ought  to  be  a  field  for  the  Colonel's  imquestioned 
talents  in  Mexico.  He  is  out  of  a  job,  and  that  poor 
country  is  clean  out  of  available  statesmen.  And  he 
is  a  good  man  and  loves  righteousness. 


July  20,  1916. 

Y  THE  mobilization  of  the  militia  thousands  of 
valuable  young  men  have  been  dragged  away 
from  employments  that  were  receiving  their 
attention.  Their  parents  sigh;  their  employers 
groan;  their  friends  exclaim.  But,  after  all,  that  is 
A  Respite  one  good  thing  this  poor  Mexican  war- 
fromtheJob  scare  has  done.  It  has  given  all  these 
youths  respite  from  their  jobs,  and  one  more  change 
of  thought  and  scene  before  they  harden  into  mech- 
anisms. 

Of  course,  there  is  danger  in  being  mobilized;  risk 
of  sickness,  and  war  perils.  But  there  is  also  danger 
from  one's  job.  In  this  country,  certainly,  in  the 
last  generation,  where  war  has  slain  hundreds,  thou- 
sands have  succumbed  to  their  employment. 

And,  usually,  the  better  a  job  is  the  harder  it  is  to 
keep  it  in  its  place.  A  poor  Kttle  job  that  does  not 
pay  well  and  is  not  in  much  request,  one  may  pick  up 
and  set  down  at  will,  and  choose  intervals  in  which 
to  invite  his  soul.  But  a  first-class  job  usually  en- 
slaves its  holder,  especially  in  his  earlier  years. 
Young  men  in  employments  that  have  tolerable 
prospects  are  tethered  with  a  short  rope  all  the  earlier 
years  of  their  lives.  Most  of  them,  unless  they  sicken 
at  their  task,  never  get  quit  of  it  for  more  than  a  fort- 
night at  a  time  between  twenty-one  and  fifty. 
Everything  else  in  life  yields  to  the  job.  One  needs 
his  pay.  The  more  it  is  the  more  he  needs  it.  Pres- 
ently the  wife  needs  it;  the  children  need  it.  It  must 
go  on,  and  any  real  intermission  of  work  is  out  of  the 
question.     All  thoughts,  all  passions,  all  delights  are 

294 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  295 

subject  to  continuity  of  employment.  If  the  sub- 
stance of  the  employed  person  degenerates  and  he 
takes  to  drink,  or  becomes  worthless  by  some  other 
road,  then,  indeed,  he  may  get  relief,  such  as  it  is, 
from  the  job.  But  as  long  as  he  is  worth  holding  the 
job  usually  holds  him. 

There  will  be  gains  for  the  young  militiamen  for 
whom  the  bugle  has  sounded;  gains  that  in  many 
cases  will  far  more  than  offset  their  losses.  Sud- 
denly they  have  learned  that  there  is  a  bigger  boss 
in  these  States  than  Business — obligations  which  all 
the  ordinarj^  obligations  salute  and  give  way  to. 
Suddenly  they  learn  that  there  is  a  mortgage  on  their 
time  and  strength  and  skill  prior  to  all  the  liens  that 
it  has  been  the  effort  of  their  young  manhood  to 
satisfy.  Suddenly,  after  being  hard  fastened  to  a  task 
for  years,  they  find  themselves  shifted  from  their 
vocations  to  what  has  been  their  avocation,  and  with 
nothing  to  do  but  be  a  soldier. 

It  is  an  immense  change;  a  snapping  of  all  the  little 
chains  that  restricted  life;  a  change  of  thoughts, 
duties,  associations,  and  physical  and  mental  habits; 
a  chance  to  develop  in  new  ways;  a  general  revalua- 
tion of  men  and  things.  All  men  will  not  profit 
by  it  equally,  and  some  will  be  hurt  by  it,  but  taken 
by  and  large,  it  will  do  lots  of  good. 


July  21, 1916. 

OF  COURSE  if  the  Prussian  world-smash 
organization  had  not  excellent  abilities  of  a 
sort  at  its  command  it  would  not  be  so 
infernally  dangerous.  The  arrival  of  the  big  Ger- 
man submarine  in  Baltimore  was  an  advertisement 
A  Submarine  that  the  Germans  are  good  navigators  and 
Arrives  excellent  mechanics.      And  it  was  an  in- 

teresting advertisement,  but  we  hardly  neededit,  be- 
cause a  lot  of  excellent  surface-going  steam-ves- 
sels at  Hoboken  and  elsewhere  attest  the  same 
thing.  As  a  reminder  the  Deutschland  better  met  a 
want,  for  we  had  almost  forgotten  that  German  ma- 
rine mechanisms  had  any  use  except  to  pose  as  har- 
bour ornaments. 

Aside  from  that,  its  coming,  though  interesting, 
does  not  seem  vitally  important.  Such  carriers 
seem  only  fit  for  valuables  and  commodities  of 
small  bulk,  like  dyes,  drugs,  and  mail.  It  is  un- 
doubtedly a  convenience  and  advantage  for  Germany 
to  have  direct,  uncensored  communication  with  these 
States.  Her  new  carriers  may  be  so  increased  in 
size  and  number  as  to  fetch  her  appreciable  amounts 
of  copper  and  rubber.  If  the  war  keeps  on  long 
enough  and  the  British  are  not  able  to  catch  these 
merchant  submarines,  no  doubt  their  trade  will  de- 
velop very  much.  Besides  everything  else,  they 
bring  in  new  diplomatic  problems  and  may  get  us 
into  controversies  with  England,  and  so  cheer  the 
Teuton  spirit.  But  all  these  results  are  hypothetical. 
All  we  know  is  that  a  new  factor  has  come  into  the 
war  that  may  turn  out  to  be  important,  but  does  not 
look  so  at  first  sight. 

296 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  297 

Meanwhile  one  sympathizes  heartily  with  Thomas 
F.  Timmins,  of  Pearl  Street,  New  York,  who  is  dis- 
pleased because  a  tug  named  after  him  hung  around 
for  a  week  to  meet  the  Deutschland  and  got  his  name 
in  the  paper.  He  does  not  like  it.  He  is  suing  to 
have  the  tug's  name  changed.  "I  don't  want  any 
boat  with  my  name,"  he  says,  "to  go  out  helping 
German  submarines." 


j_.. 


August  3,  1916. 

THIS  week  the  great  war  enters  its  third  year, 
still  going  strong  and  no  end  in  sight. 
It  is  not  yet  popular. 

People  have  got  hardened  to  it,  and  if  they  are  far 
enough  off,  like  us,  most  of  them  take  more  interest 
The  War  in  Its  in  the  other  details  of  life  than  they  did 
Third  Year  when  the  War  was  new,  but  nobody  is 
pleased  with  it. 

Few  people  were  pleased  with  it  when  it  began. 
The  French  were  not,  nor  the  British,  nor  the  Rus- 
sians or  Italians  or  Turks.  It  did  not  look  good  to 
the  mass  of  the  Austrians,  nor  even  to  the  mass  of 
the  Germans.  Apparently  it  did  look  good  to  the 
German  general  staff,  and  to  some  Hapsburgers  in 
Austria,  and  doubtless  to  the  exalted  German  House 
of  Hohenzollern.  But  by  now  it  must  have  lost 
even  those  friends  and  admirers.  Undoubtedly, 
Kaiser  William  II,  who  is  fond  of  soldiermg,  has  had 
the  time  of  his  life  in  these  two  years  just  finished, 
but  undoubtedly  he  wishes  he  hadn't  had  it.  It  has 
been  almost  too  much  of  a  spree  even  for  so  voracious 
a  soldier  as  the  Kaiser.  Ditto  the  Crown  Prince. 
He  was  generally  credited  with  wanting  the  war  and 
welcommg  it  with  enthusiasm.  Maybe  so;  maybe 
not;  but  it  seems  quite  safe  to  credit  him  now  with 
sincere  regret  that  the  war  ever  happened. 

It  has  been  so  overdone! 

It  was  to  have  been  another  six  weeks  walkover 
for  Germany,  and  then  home  with  all  the  world 
shown,  and  finally  convinced,  that  to  stand  up  to 
Germany  meant  annihilation,  and  that  the  all-con- 

ie98 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  299 

quering  Teuton  must  have  his  way,  whatever  it  was, 
and  be  roundly  paid,  and  repeatedly  repaid,  for  the 
trouble  of  taking  it. 

But  alas!  Belgium  made  her  foolhardy  objection 
to  being  a  road;  France  scrambled  to  arms;  such 
troops  as  England  had  ready  were  ferried  over;  there 
came  the  great  retreat,  and  then  the  miracle  of  the 
Marne,  and  in  six  weeks  Germany  was  ditched,  and 
not  in  Paris,  either. 

The  wonder  of  all  that  must  still  impress  the  mind 
that  goes  back  to  it.  It  has  been  a  long  two  years 
since  then;  long,  fearsome,  tremendous  years,  in 
which  the  struggling  nations,  gathering  every  power 
they  could  command,  have  shaken  the  very  earth, 
and  filled  great  areas  of  it  with  graves  and  scarred 
fields  and  triple  trenches,  and  peppered  the  sea  with 
mines. 

Of  course  the  nations  all  want  peace;  want  it 
desperately.  And  they  are  striving  desperately  to 
bring  it  to  pass.  But  there  is  only  one  way  yet  visible 
— to  fight  out  the  war. 

Talk  of  stopping  the  war  by  any  other  means  than  by  whipping 
the  Kaiser  as  soundly  as  he  deserves  and  making  it  plain  that  the 
world  wants  no  more  conquerors,  and  insists  upon  having  law- 
abiding  kings  or  none,  is  rank  nonsense. 

So,  the  Courier- Journal.  It  can  be  put  less  bluntly, 
but  that  is  the  sense  of  the  situation  as  the  third  year 
of  the  war  gets  under  way. 

According  to  our  reliable  sporting  contemporary, 
the  Springfield  Republican,  the  month  of  July,  which 
opened  with  odds  of  two  to  one  against  Wilson,  has 
seen  them  decline  to  six  to  ^yq.  The  reason  given 
is  that  the  Progressives  have  split,  and  that  Hughes 
will  get  by  no  means  all  of  the  Progressive  vote. 

But  what  about  the  Roman  Catholics.^     One  reads 


300  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

an  extract  from  the  Guardian,  sl  ^oman  Catholic  paper 
described  as  the  official  organ  of  Little  Rock,  which 
speaks  of  frequent  prophecies  that  the  whole  ballot 
of  its  co-religionists  "will  be  used  to  punish  the  Presi- 
dent for  his  policy  involving  Catholic  interests."  In 
reading  "the  publications  which  seek  to  form  the 
public  opinion  of  the  Catholic  body,"  the  Guardian  is 
"struck  with  the  sameness  of  the  sentiment  that 
everywhere  holds  President  Wilson  up  to  scorn." 
It  fears  imprudent  action  from  the  conventions  of  the 
great  Catholic  organizations  in  August,  each  of  which, 
it  says,  "has  a  threat  for  President  Wilson,  either  be- 
cause of  Mexico  or  because  of  the  European  tur- 
moil." "  God  give  our  people  sense,"  says  the  Guard- 
ian, which  is  not  pleased  with  what  it  thinks  it  sees, 
and  prefers  that  Catholics  should  not  join  hands  to 
beat  a  presidential  candidate. 

Most  readers,  we  believe,  will  receive  these  intima- 
tions with  surprise.  Of  course  nobody  is  going  to 
get  the  whole  Catholic  vote,  but  if  religious  considera- 
tions are  going  to  influence  a  larger  proportion  of  the 
Roman  Catholics  in  the  coming  election  than  usual, 
of  course  it  is  interesting. 

But  what  is  the  matter .^^  Carranza  and  the  revolu- 
tion generally  in  Mexico,  no  doubt,  and  (since  most  of 
our  Catholics  are  Irish)  some  defect,  perhaps,  of 
mediation  or  interference  with  England  in  Irish  af- 
fairs. Then  there  is  a  good  deal  of  Irish  anti-Eng- 
lish sympathy  with  Germany  to  reckon  with,  though 
the  bulk  of  the  Irish  in  this  country,  as  elsewhere, 
are  believed  to  be  pro- Ally. 

What  our  Catholic  brethren  v/ould  gain,  however, 
by  turning  out  a  Presbyterian  like  Mr.  Wilson  to 
put  in  a  Baptist  like  Mr.  Hughes  is  something  one 
would  like  to  have  expounded.  Mr.  Hughes'  ad- 
vantage is  that  he  has  not  had  to  do  anything,  so 
nobody  is  mad  at  him  for  what  he  has,  or  has  not, 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  301 

done.  If  any  Catholic  whose  usual  political  affilia- 
tions would  incline  him  to  vote  for  Mr.  Wilson  finds 
religious  motives  for  voting  this  year  for  Mr.  Hughes, 
our  machinery  of  election  will  enable  him  to  vote  that 
way,  but  whether  it  will  be  an  advantage  to  Mr. 
Hughes  to  have  the  Catholic  vote  added  to  the  Ger- 
man vote  in  his  support  is  a  more  complicated  ques- 
tion. 


August  10, 1916. 

WE  TALK  about  Germans,  British,  or  Rus- 
sians in  the  mass  as  though  all  Germans 
were  alike,  all  Russians  had  the  same 
minds,  all  British  the  same  intentions.  In  the  war 
the  Germans,  as  fighting  men,  are  still  all  together  in 
Two  Great  ^^^  group,  and  the  British  in  another,  and 
Conceptions  the  Russiaus  in  another.  For  war  purposes 
Opposed  ^jjjg  grouping  of  these  peoples  according  to 
nationality  is  right  enough,  but  for  other  purposes 
it  is  very  misleading. 

You  hear  it  said,  "The  Russians  are  cruel." 
Where  do  they  get  the  reputation  for  cruelty.'* 
Mainly  from  the  harshness  of  the  Russian  bureau- 
cracy to  the  Jews  and  revolutionists.  But  it  is 
absurd  to  think  of  Russia  as  all  bureaucracy.  The 
rising  power  there  seems  to  be  democratic.  When 
we  say  ''Russia"  we  are  entitled  to  think  of  a  great 
mass  of  people  struggling  towards  education,  liberty, 
and  representative  government. 

Neither  are  the  British  all  of  one  mind,  except 
about  the  need  to  fight  Germany.  Pro-Germans  here 
cite  the  war  in  the  Transvaal  as  an  example  of  the 
British  spirit,  but  a  large  proportion  of  the  British 
disapproved  and  opposed  it,  and  their  influence  told 
in  the  settlement.  There  are  two  spirits  in  England, 
and  they  both  have  a  voice. 

So,  undoubtedly,  there  are,  or  will  be,  two  spirits  in 
Germany. 

There  are  two  great  conceptions  of  government  and 
national  behaviour  struggling  together  all  over  the 
world.     Just  now  the  Allies  are  all  counted  on  one 

302 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  303 

side  in  this  struggle,  and  the  Teutonic  powers  on  the 
other.  But  be  sure  the  struggle  is  going  on  behind 
all  the  lines  as  well  as  between  them.  A  visible 
division  between  the  forward-looking  people  and  the 
backward  lookers  cannot  be  made  even  in  this  coun- 
try, where  both  our  political  parties  include  both 
kinds.  But  the  mental  struggle  never  ceases.  In 
every  thoughtful  mind  goes  on  the  daily  discussion — 
Is  this  way  the  world  is  being  run  the  best  way 
practicable.^     If  not,  how  can  we  better  it.^ 

The  great  war's  purpose  is  not  to  determine  whether 
Germany  or  England  or  Russia  shall  dominate  Eu- 
rope, but  to  settle  this  question,  how  to  manage  the 
world  so  that  orderly  people  can  live  in  it. 


August  17, 1916, 

THE  country  was  heated  to  the  pomt  of  tor- 
ment. Judge  Hughes  made  his  speech  of 
acceptance,  and  the  land  immediately  cooled 
off.  Let  us  hope  the  Judge  will  speak  often  while 
the  summer  lasts.  We  have  sweltered  a-plenty. 
Hughes  The  specch  gave  all  but  universal  satisfac- 
Speaks  tion.  All  the  Republicans,  except  the  Tribune, 
said  it  was  sublime,  a  real  speech  at  last,  and  were 
delighted.  All  the  Democrats  said  it  was  vague  and 
empty,  and  were  equally  pleased.  The  exception 
was  the  Tribune,  which  said  it  did  not  hammer  hard 
enough  in  the  right  place,  but  would  have  to  do. 

It  was  a  "Hey,  Rube!"  speech  to  rally  the  circus 
men  to  rescue  the  Elephant. 

What  the  Judge  said,  in  real  effect,  was  that  the 
Democrats  are  Rubes  and  don't  know  how  to  run  the 
country,  and  have  run  it  very  ill.  His  main  com- 
plaint was  about  Mexico,  where,  he  said,  the  present 
administration  had  undone  everything  it  had  done, 
and  had  been  always  wrong,  both  coming  and  going. 

There  is  no  doubt  about  it  that  the  Democratic 
party  has  abounded  in  Rubes,  including  some  in 
office,  and  there  is  very  little  doubt  that  the  Mexi- 
can job  has  been  entrusted  to  some  unsuitable  agents 
and  boggled,  first  and  last,  a  great  deal.  Neverthe- 
less, the  country  turned  cool  the  next  morning  after 
the  Hughes  speech.  Millions  of  voters  who  were 
thankful  to  sleep  again  under  a  blanket  remain 
apathetic  about  the  presidency.  There  is  no  real 
excitement  yet  about  the  perils  that  beset  the 
Elephant,  and  not  very  much  about  those  that  beset 

S04 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 


305 


the  country.  There  is  no  visible,  general  eagerness 
for  a  change  of  administration,  except  among  persons 
who  have  lost  power  and  would  like  to  regain  it. 
Neither  is  there  confidence  that  a  change  from  Wilson 
to  Hughes  would  amount  to  much.  The  professional 
circus  men  would  recapture  the  circus,  but  there  is 
little  assurance  that  they  would  run  it  any  more  to  the 
taste  of  the  country  than  they  did  before.  It  almost 
seems  as  if  the  voters  had  lost  interest  m  Presidents 
and  were  disposed  to  look  on  them  as  necessary  evils. 
The  great  war  absorbs  attention.  An  issue  con- 
nected with  that  would  get  notice,  but  no  such  issue 
has  come,  as  yet,  out  of  the  presidential  campaign, 
and  as  between  the  candidates  a  good  part  of  the 
country  seems  to  be  neutral. 


August  2Jf,  1916, 

AT  THIS  writing  there  is  as  yet  no  railroad 
strike,  and  probably  there  will  be  none.  A 
general  strike  that  would  tie  ap  all  the  rail- 
roads would  be  altogether  too  bad.  It  will  be  neces- 
sary to  avert  it,  and  no  doubt  it  will  be  averted. 
Railroad  To  be  sure,  this  same  line  of  reasoning 
Strikes  ^as  employed  two  years  ago  to  prove  that 
a  general  European  war  would  be  too  bad  for  all 
hands  and  could  not  be  allowed  to  happen.  All 
the  same,  it  did  happen,  and,  of  course,  the  general 
railroad  strike  may  happen. 

The  fact  that  produced  the  great  war  in  Europe 
was  that  Germany,  under  Prussian  military  organiza- 
tion, had  come  to  be  too  strong  and  too  cocky  for  the 
safety  of  Europe.  So  it  is  in  these  days  with  or- 
ganizations. They  seem  to  keep  outgrowing  the 
limits  of  their  safety.  Our  various  trusts  and  rail- 
roads combined  and  compelled  interference,  and  now 
we  see  organized  labour  beginning  to  be  plagued  with 
this  excess  of  strength  which  is  really  weakness. 

It  looks  as  if  the  Railway  Brotherhoods,  by  the 
spread  of  their  organizations,  had  come  to  be  too 
strong  and  too  cocky  for  the  safety  of  the  United 
States.  To  threaten  a  general  railway  strike  is 
simply  to  take  the  country  by  the  throat.  With 
ordinary  disputes  between  workmen  and  operators 
the  concern  of  the  country  is  hardly  more  than  con- 
templative, but  with  a  controversy  that  threatens  to 
throttle  it  its  concern  is  vital.  It  makes  no  difference 
whether  the  demands  of  the  men  are  reasonable  or 
not,  the  threat  to  choke  the  country  into  compliance 

306 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  307 

with  them  won't  do.  The  country  will  no  more  lie 
down  and  let  the  Brotherhoods  walk  over  it  than 
Europe  would  lie  down  and  become  a  road  for  Ger- 
mans. 

If  the  Brotherhoods  strike  we  shall  all  be  against 
them.  If  they  strike  they  will  attempt  far  more  than 
to  withdraw  their  labour  from  the  roads.  They  will 
attempt  to  hold  up  the  operation  of  properties  worth 
many  billions  of  dollars,  and  to  control  those  proper- 
ties until  their  demands  are  granted. 

That  won't  do.  We  all  want  the  railway  men  to 
have  their  dues,  but  we  don't  want  them  to  determine 
first  what  their  dues  are  and  then  to  get  them  by  the 
pressure  of  their  thumbs  on  our  windpipes.  If  we 
should  let  that  happen  our  windpipes  would  never 
stay  long  clean  of  thumb  marks. 

But  what  can  the  men  do  except  threaten  to  strike.'^ 
By  what  other  means  have  they  any  chance  to  get 
more  pay  or  shorter  hours  .^ 

We  don't  see  any  other  effectual  means. 

The  upshot  of  the  contemporary  situation  is  that, 
since  a  general  railroad  strike  is  intolerable,  there 
should  be  other  means  for  the  men  to  get  what  is 
coming  to  them. 

And  the  most  natural  means  would  be  to  go  to 
court  with  their  demands,  and  the  most  natural  court 
to  go  to  is  the  one  that  fixes  the  railroad  rates.  So  it 
looks  as  though  government  were  being  gently  but 
firmly  led  by  the  hand  of  events  to  go  the  rest  of  the 
way  with  the  railroads,  and  having  come  between 
them  and  their  passengers  and  shippers,  to  come  now 
between  them  and  their  hired  help.  To  forbid 
the  roads  to  raise  rates  and  then  deny  them  protec- 
tion against  a  rise  in  wages  is  not  fair.  To  permit 
the  roads  and  their  customers  to  fight  out  their  dif- 
ferences has  been  considered  unfair  to  the  customers. 
To  permit  the  roads  and  their  employees  to  fight  out 


308  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

their  disputes  is  unfair  to  everybody  and  intolerably 
inconvenient.  So  the  threatened  strike  looks  like 
another  hard  job  for  Congress,  and  possibly  like  a 
new  issue  in  the  campaign,  a  new  subject  of  discus- 
sion for  Judge  Hughes  and  a  new  law  to  be  submitted 
presently  to  the  consideration  of  the  Supreme  Court. 


August  31,  1916. 

THE  killing  goes  on  in  Europe  at  an  appalling 
rate,  and  accompanied,  as  is  not  unnatural, 
by  a  rising  development  of  hatred.  In  the 
newspapers  and  in  private  letters  one  reads  of  intense 
bitterness  of  feeling  between  the  belligerents.  There 
Rising  has  been,  and  is,  enormous  suffering,  appre- 
Hatreds  heusion,  and  bereavement,  and  its  effect  on 
temper  is  about  what  would  be  expected.  Observers 
who  are  keen  for  signs  of  peace  see  none  at  present. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  the  efforts  of  the  Allies 
on  the  West  are  directed  to  free  France  and  Belgium 
from  German  invaders,  and  on  the  East  also  mainly 
to  recover  conquered  territory.  No  doubt,  for  a 
price,  the  Germans  would  pull  out  and  go  home,  but 
the  Allies  are  m  no  humour  to  pay  a  price,  except  in 
blood.  One  reads  that  the  Pope  has  instructed 
all  the  Cardinals  in  Italy  to  pray  for  victory  for  Italy 
and  her  Allies,  the  explanation  being  that  no  peace 
can  be  lasting  unless  the  Germans  are  beaten.  It 
may  not  be  true  that  this  is  the  sentiment  of  the  Pope, 
but  it  is  certainly  the  sentiment  of  all  the  Allies. 
Any  one  who  can  produce  a  plan  that  would  assure 
permanent  peace  without  first  beating  the  Germans 
will  confer  a  considerable  favour  on  mankind. 

Meanwhile  the  Germans  are  doing  little  to  win  the 
kindly  regard  of  their  neighbours.  The  execution  of 
Captain  Fryatt  was  not  an  ingratiating  action. 
The  deportation  of  twenty-one  thousand  non-com- 
batants, mostly  women  and  girls,  from  Lille  roused 
deep  apprehensions  and  indignation.  Nevertheless, 
the  newspapers  report  that  these  people  who  have 

309 


310  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

been  moved  from  their  homes  have  been  well  treated, 
and  are  better  off  and  better  fed  than  they  were  be- 
fore. After  Belgium,  one  did  not  know  what  might 
happen  to  these  deported  people,  but  the  evidence 
seems  to  be  good  that  this  deportation  was  not  an  act 
of  frightfulness,  but  of  necessity  or  convenience,  and 
perhaps,  in  a  way,  of  humanity. 


September  S,  1916. 

HAROLD  BEGBIE  (English  writer)  says  in 
the  Hibbert  Journal  that  Russia  has  a  re- 
Hgion  of  love  and  England  a  religion  of 
works,  and  that  each  needs  the  other. 

Everybody  in  Russia,  it  seems,  is  Christian,  irre- 
Eussiathe  spective  of  couduct.  There  is  immense 
Great  Gamble  faith,  but  great  latitude  of  deportment. 
The  Russian  harlot  says  her  prayers  and  goes  to 
church,  but  does  not  necessarily  mend  her  ways. 
In  England  the  sinners  shy  at  religion;  in  Russia 
they  reach  out  for  it.  England  abounds  in  religious 
philanthropy.  In  Russia  there  is  scarcely  any  or- 
ganized philanthropy,  but  there  is  universal  faith, 
and  the  chief  building  in  every  village  is  the  church. 
In  England  there  are  the  forms  of  democracy;  in 
Russia  the  spirit. 

Mr.  Begbie  would  have  England  more  Russian 
and  Russia  more  English.  It  seems  a  good  idea.  If 
the  suppression  of  vodka  is  maintained  in  Russia, 
conduct  will  take  a  great  step  forward,  but  the  Rus- 
sians will  get  rich  faster,  and  be  more  exposed  than 
heretofore  to  the  various  drawbacks  of  large  means, 
which  have  not  failed  of  bad  effects  on  English  char- 
acter. 

Take  them  by  and  large,  the  bad  with  the  good,  the 
crooked  with  the  straight,  the  English  seem  to  have 
the  best  claim  to  be  rated  the  greatest  people  now  on 
earth.  They  combine  more  power  with  more  char- 
acter, more  vigour  with  more  wise  compunctions,  than 
any  other  people. 

But  the  Russians   are  the   rising  marvel.    For 

311 


312  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

goodness,  for  badness;  for  talent,  for  vigour;  for 
number,  for  endurance,  for  undeveloped  capacity 
they  are  unmatched — a  vast  aggregation  of  the  raw 
material  of  human  greatness.  And  they  are  keep- 
ing better  company  now  than  they  have  ever  kept. 
They  are  in  with  the  great  democratic  countries  of 
Europe  in  a  struggle  that  could  hardly  be  won  with- 
out them.  It  is  a  wonderful  thing,  this  linking  of 
Russia  with  France  and  England  and  Italy  against 
Germany  and  Austria.  One  would  have  expected 
the  despotic  governments  to  hold  together,  and  they 
tell  us  the  Russian  bureaucracy  is  pro-German. 

But  not  the  Russian  people.  They  are  closer  in 
spirit  to  England  and  France  than  to  the  Prussian- 
ized Germany  that  has  come  to  pass  in  the  last  sev- 
enty years. 

But  of  all  the  huge  speculations  now  being  played 
out  on  the  green  table  of  earth,  the  greatest  gamble 
is  Russia;  not  her  ultimate  future,  for  that  can- 
not miscarry,  but  her  course  in  the  next  twenty-five 
years.  It  is  a  remarkable  thing  that  the  fear  of  Ger- 
many should  have  constrained  to  unite  France, 
Britain,  and  even  Japan,  in  a  prodigious  effort  to 
develop,  at  great  cost  and  as  rapidly  as  possible,  the 
immense  latent  possibilities  of  the  Russian  people. 


September  7, 1916. 

MR.  WILSON  is  a  guilty  man;  thrice  guilty, 
the  Sun  says;  but,  depend  upon  it,  he  will  be 
held  to  strict  accountability  for  his  misdeeds, 
and  especially  for  this  latest  one  of  trying  to  prevent 
a  railroad  strike.  It  is  quite  of  a  piece,  the  Sun  says, 
"Thrice  with  his  two  great  previous  malfeasances  in 
Tested''  the  Huerta  and  Lusitania  cases.  "Mr.  Wil- 
son has  been  tested  once,  twice,  thrice,"  so  our 
good  neighbour  puts  it,  and  is  already  holding  its 
breath  in  anticipation  of  the  coming  poHtical  fall- 
down  and  total  cave-in  of  what  was  Wilson. 

Go,  somebody,  and  hit  the  good  though  Munseyed 
Sun  on  the  back  and  make  it  resume  regular  breath- 
ing. Admitting  all  these  crimes,  can  the  jury  be 
persuaded  to  convict  him.^^  He  may  get  us  off  with- 
out a  railroad  strike  by  exercise  of  this  same  low 
cunning  and  delay  which  has  cozened  us  out -of  two 
nice  wars  which  might  have  done  some  of  us  a  lot  of 
good.  It  will  be  lamentable,  shameful,  perfidious, 
anything  you  like,  but  can  the  jury  be  made  to  think 
so? 

As  to  that,  the  betting  men  are  doubtful.  The 
truth  probably  is  that  enough  voters  to  decide  the 
election  are  perplexed  by  Mr.  Wilson  and  can't 
make  up  their  minds  whether  he  is  a  rogue  or  a 
statesman,  and  will  prefer  to  keep  him  in  office  and 
under  observation  for  another  four  years  till  they 
can  come  to  some  conclusion  about  him.  He  gets 
continually  involved  in  controversies  and  constantly 
gets  both  disputants  down  on  him,  and  that  mixes 
the  onlookers  all  up.     The  Hj'phens  say  he  hasn't 

313  i 


314  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

been  fair  to  Germany,  and  look  to  Hughes  for  their 
revenge,  but  the  Hon.  Robert  Bacon,  unneutral  can- 
didate for  senator,  and  friend  of  France,  invites 
support  on  grounds  of  general  dissatisfaction  with 
everything  Mr.  Wilson  has  done.  Stand  up  to  op- 
pose this  shifty  President,  and  immediately  you  are 
crowded  off  your  feet  by  the  inrush  of  opponents 
who  want  to  beat  him  for  reasons  precisely  the  oppo- 
site of  yours. 

There  is  very  little  comfort  fighting  such  a  man. 
You  can't  do  it  and  keep  in  good  company.  The 
Tribune  says  that  Col.  George  Harvey  has  dis- 
cerned the  seeds  of  ruin  in  the  President  he  made, 
and  is  coming  out  for  Hughes. 

But  what  company  for  George ! 

Daniel  in  with  the  lions  is  nothing  to  it. 

Who  will  be  sure  ever  again  whether  Col.  Harvey 
is,  as  heretofore,  a  Democratic  prophet,  or  a  carnivo- 
rous Republican  .f^ 

As  for  the  railroad  fight,  nothing  final  has  hap- 
pened at  this  writing,  and  it  looks  as  though  both 
contestants  were  too  exliausted  by  presidential  con- 
ferences to  go  on  with  the  war.  It  has  got  around  in 
acceptable  form  that  what  the  Brotherhoods  are  after 
is  a  lot  more  pay  disguised  as  the  eight-hour  da^^ 
The  disposition  to  have  more  pay  and  shorter  hours  of 
work,  if  possible,  is  so  communis  omnibus  that  we  all 
have  to  sympathize  with  it,  and  the  only  drawback 
to  letting  the  Brotherhoods  have  theirs  is  that  the 
railroads  say  they  can't  spare  the  money  unless  we, 
The  People,  will  raise  their  pay  in  turn.  Speaking 
for  us,  the  President  says  to  the  railroads:  "Certainly 
we  will  raise  your  pay,  too,  if  necessary,  but  please 
try  the  plan  out  so  as  to  see  how  much  it  costs." 
Then  the  railroad  men  go  away  sadly  and  confer 
with  one  another,  and  the  Brotherhoods  wait  around, 
deeply  bored,  and  wonder  whether  The  People  will 


THE  DIAEY  OF  A  NATION  315 

stand  the  rise,  and  all  the  Hughes  papers  cry  bloody 
murder  and  insist  that  Doctor  Wilson  is  at  it  again 
and  dosing  the  patient  with  prohibited  dope. 

It  makes  one  laugh. 

The  strike  may  be  on  before  this  paper  gets  to  its 
readers,  but  it  looks  as  though  it  had  been  talked  to 
death.  The  time  to  strike  is  while  the  iron  is  hot. 
It  cools  during  discussion. 

Moreover,  to  settle  this  clash  of  railroad  employers 
and  workers  looks  more  and  more  like  a  highly  ex- 
pert job.  It  won't  be  settled  properly  with  a  club. 
Neither  is  this  a  time  when  settlements  by  force  are 
regarded  with  much  favour.  So  one  hopes  the  dis- 
pute will  be  talked  out.  If  any  one  had  had  author- 
ity to  summon  the  threatening  contestants  in  Europe 
twenty-five  months  ago  and  make  them  talk  it  out 
it  would  have  been  very  hard  to  have  a  war. 


September  21,  1916. 

MR.  WILSON  thinks  he  is  a  good  President, 
and,  no  doubt,  a  good  many  voters  are  of 
his  opinion. 

Mr.  Hughes  now  describes  himself  as  a  friend  of 
labour. 

"  Out  to  Beat  Oi  course  he  is. 

the  Rich"  Both  candidates  are  just  now  the  friends 
of  almost  anybody  who  has  a  vote.  Neither  candi- 
date can  do  or  say  anything  just  now  that  is  not 
interpreted  to  be  a  bid  for  votes. 

The  campaign  is  warmmg  up  a  little,  which  is  cheer- 
ing to  the  sporting  brethren,  but  it  is  not  really 
buzzing  yet.  When  the  Hughes  people  get  Wilson 
convicted  of  a  long  line  of  unpardonable  offenses  they 
have  to  meet  the  question,  "But  would  Hughes  be 
any  better?"  They  reply,  "Lots  better,  of  course," 
but  that  is  pure  surmise.  About  the  only  thing  that 
is  certain  about  Mr.  Hughes  is  that,  if  elected,  he 
would  not  have  Josephus  Daniels  in  his  Cabinet.  In 
other  particulars — in  dealings  with  Mexico,  in  deal- 
ings with  Europe,  in  dealings  with  labour — he  would 
probably  put  on  his  rubber-soled  shoes  and  tread 
softly,  one  step  at  a  time. 

Miss  Ida  Tarbell  has  come  out  for  Wilson,  and 
Gifford  Pinchot  has  come  out  against  him. 

A  gain  for  Wilson  both  ways. 

Miss  Tarbell  says  Mr.  Wilson  is  the  first  real  pro- 
gressive leader  this  decade  has  produced. 

Mr.  Pinchot  says  such  things  as  this : 

We  have  all  heard  him  (Wilson)  tell  Germany  publicly  that 
she  would  be  held  to  strict  accountability;  and  have  learned 

316 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  317 

afterward  that  he  had  actually  let  her  know  secretly  at  the  time, 
by  the  mouth  of  his  Secretary  of  State  through  the  Austrian 
Ambassador,  that  what  he  said  he  did  not  mean. 

There  is  not  enough  truth  in  that  to  do  Mr.  Wilson 
harm,  and  there  is  enough  truth  in  what  Miss  Tarbell 
says  to  do  him  good  with  the  progressives. 

The  truth  is  that  Mr.  Wilson  comes  more  and  more 
under  suspicion  of  being  the  greatest  American 
Progressive  since  Thomas  Jefferson.  Jefferson  was 
an  exceedingly  clever  man,  especially  in  the  use  of 
language,  and  he  was  out  to  beat  the  rich.  Mr.  Wil- 
son gives  more  and  more  the  impression  of  being  out 
on  the  same  errand.  Whenever  there  comes  a  choice 
of  courses,  as  lately  in  the  threatened  railroad  strike, 
he  shows  himself  the  same  man  who  was  president  of 
Princeton,  and  at  outs  with  most  of  the  nobility  and 
gentry  on  his  Board  of  Trustees.  He  is  an  astute, 
shifty,  formidable  person,  driven  all  the  time  by  an 
innate  and  sleepless  indisposition  to  knuckle  down  to 
the  power  of  money  or  to  any  one  that  stands  on  it. 
He  is  perfectly  willing  to  use  the  rich  to  beat  riches 
and  aristocracy.  The  Jews  are  not  well  received  in 
the  polite  world  in  this  country,  and  are  readier  than 
Gentiles  to  beat  it  up.  They  do  not  mind  incurring 
the  disfavour  of  the  powers  of  society,  because  dis- 
favour is  all  they  will  get  from  them,  anyway.  Ob- 
serve Mr.  Wilson's  sympathetic  relations  with  power- 
ful Jews!  Who  is  nearer  to  him,  politically,  than 
Mr.  Brandeis,  Mr.  Morgenthau,  Mr.  Untermeyer.? 
Why  these  close  bonds  with  these  rich,  dexterous, 
and  able  Israelites.'^  Because  none  of  them  has  any 
unmanly  weakness  in  favour  of  our  current  Gentile 
civilization  and  the  bankers  and  lawyers  who  run  it. 
They  are  all  quite  ready  to  scrap  as  much  of  it  as  is 
convenient,  and  so  is  Mr.  Wilson. 

The  rich,  as  representatives  of  the  vested  interests, 
are  always  and  instinctively  obstacles  to  political 


318  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

progress.  They  are  beneficiaries  of  the  existing 
order  and  don't  want  it  all  mussed  up.  Also  they 
have  a  say  about  the  conduct  of  life  and  the  manage- 
ment of  affairs,  and  they  don't  want  to  lose  it.  The 
only  power  that  can  stand  up  against  theirs  and  keep 
their  grip  on  the  human  windpipe  reasonably  loose  is 
the  power  of  the  people.  Accordingly,  ambitious 
spirits  are  always  reaching  out  to  grasp  and  use  the 
power  of  the  people. 

One  can't  complain  of  that.  People  who  spend 
their  lives  having  all  the  money  they  can  and  en- 
trenching themselves  in  it  for  the  defense  of  their 
power,  comfort,  and  ideas  cannot  reasonably  snivel 
at  other  people  who  accumulate  power  in  some  other 
form  and  use  it  to  blow  the  money  power  out  of  the 
ground.  That  is  the  way  of  the  world,  so  human  life 
goes  on.  Jefferson  fought  the  Federalists,  including 
most  of  the  rich  and  respectable  people  in  the  coun- 
try; Jackson  fought  the  United  States  Bank;  Lincoln 
fought  the  slave-holding  aristocracy  and  all  its  allies; 
Roosevelt  fought — here  and  there — the  trusts,  the 
railroads,  the  bankers,  off  and  on,  but  Roosevelt  is  an 
aristocrat  and  has  compassionate  bowels  for  his  own 
kind. 

But  Mr.  Wilson  is  not  an  aristocrat.  He  is  a 
Presbyterian  professor.  He  has  fought,  according  to 
his  lights,  against  the  exploitation  of  the  bodies  and 
energies  of  the  common  people  to  defend  the  interests 
and  investments  of  the  prosperous.  At  the  start 
he  would  not  fight  in  Mexico,  to  defend  American 
investors;  he  would  not  take  sides  with  Rockefeller 
in  the  Colorado  strike;  he  helped  reduce  the  tariff;  he 
alleviated  the  domination  of  the  money  trust;  he 
would  not  get  us  into  the  war,  even  after  the  Lusi- 
tania,  though  he  did  risk  doing  so,  and  though  all 
"society"  wanted  to  get  in;  and  he  would  not  side 
with  the  railroads  against  the  Brotherhoods. 


THE  DL\RY  OF  A  NATION  319 

So  you  see  his  bent. 

You  may  not  care  for  a  mongoose  for  a  household 
pet,  but  a  mongoose  is  a  bully  little  animal  to  kill 
snakes. 

Mr.  Wilson  is  a  kind  of  presidential  mongoose.  The 
question  about  him  is  not  whether  he  is  pretty  or  havS 
afPectionate  and  endearing  ways,  but  a  question  of 
snakes;  how  many,  how  big. 

This  man  is  for  the  mass  of  the  people.  He  really 
is  a  great  democrat.  He  is  a  good  hand  to  nip  the 
tariff  cobra,  the  banking  adder,  the  railroad  boa- 
constrictor  when  that  is  necessary.  It  is  his  nature 
to  fight  these  creatures.  It  was  not  Roosevelt's 
nature  to  fight  them.  He  could  slash  around  among 
them  on  occasion,  but  he  enjoj^ed  their  society.  His 
notion  of  government  was  always  government  by 
aristocracy. 

Miss  Tarbell  is  right.  Mr.  Wilson  is  a  real  Pro- 
gressive with  the  necessary  bite,  the  indispensable 
wiles,  and  a  remarkable  gift  of  public  discourse.  Mr. 
Gifford  Pinchot,  an  excellent  gentleman  with  a  gift 
for  trees,  is  a  political  baby  beside  him. 

If  we  are  running  short  of  snakes  and  want  to  keep 
some  to  stock  our  zoos  we  ought  to  turn  Mr.  Wilson 
out.  If  we  think  the  desires  of  the  mass  of  the  people 
are  gettmg  extravagant  and  that  talent,  leading, 
light  and  thrift  are  in  danger  of  missing  their  wage, 
we  may  prefer  Mr.  Hughes.  If  we  think  organized 
labour  is  going  to  grab  more  than  its  due,  that  may 
seem  a  reason  for  bouncing  Mr.  Wilson. 

But,  after  all,  the  moment  organized  labour  be- 
comes strong  enough  to  ride  over  Congress  it  ceases 
to  be  the  people  and  becomes  a  detail  of  privilege 
and  a  snake,  as  dangerous  to  the  mass  of  us  as  any 
other,  and  as  sure  as  any  other  to  be  nipped  just  where 
the  neck  begins  by  a  conscientious  presidential  mon- 
goose. 


320  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

Government  is  a  sad  affair,  and  being  President  is  a 
sad  duty  which  some  one  must  undertake.  Nobody 
continues  very  long  to  make  a  good  job  of  it,  but, 
other  things  being  equal,  a  man  with  four  years'  ex- 
perience at  it  ought  to  do  rather  better  than  a  green 
hand. 

Progressiveness  is  a  very  different  thing  from  prog- 
ress. Progressiveness  invariably  consists  in  tak- 
ing something  away  from  large  means  to  bestow  it 
upon  small.  But  progress  often  adds  to  him  who 
hath.  It  fights  catch-as-catch-can  and  is  much  less 
scrupulous  than  progressiveness.  There  will  come 
times,  of  course,  when  progress  will  sweep  progres- 
siveness up  into  a  pan  and  pitch  it  out  of  the  window. 


October  12,  1916. 

THE  leading  events  from  week  to  week  just 
now  are  speeches  and  political  discourses 
published  in  the  newspapers.  September  went 
out  with  a  brisk  fusillade  of  them.  Doctor  Wilson  at 
Long  Branch  lambasted  the  Republican  party,  Doc- 
Does  the  tor  Roosevelt  at  Battle  Creek  attacked 
Country        Doctor  Wilsou,  Doctor  Eliot  put  out,  in  the 

yvant  the  4  ,i       ,'         i  •  p  i  •  i 

Rejmblicans  AUatitic,  uis  reasons  tor  keeping  along 
Back?  with  Doctor  Wilson  instead  of  trying  to 

swap  him. 

Doctor  Wilson  is  making  excellent  discourses.  His 
address  to  the  Young  Men's  Democratic  League  on 
September  30th  was  a  real  entertainment.  Every- 
body knows  that  the  Republican  party  went  to  smash 
four  years  ago.  Doctor  Wilson  explained  why  it  went 
to  smash,  and  why  it  is  quite  unnecessary  at  this  time 
to  make  any  serious  attempt  to  resuscitate  it.  It  is 
now  compomided,  he  said,  of  elements  absolutely  con- 
tradictory to  one  another.  It  has,  therefore,  no 
policies.  What  its  leaders  want  is  to  get  control  and 
then  determine  policies  in  private  conference. 

"A  party  that  merely  wants  to  get  control  does  not 
have  to  have  any  policies."  So  Doctor  Wilson  said, 
and  doubtless  that  is  why  there  has  not  been  more 
meat  in  Mr.  Hughes'  speeches.  He  cannot  afford  in 
this  campaign  to  speak  from  his  heart  or  have  vital 
opinions.  He  does  not  represent  a  party  that  has 
vital  opinions  or  vital  intentions.  He  merely  repre- 
sents a  great  hope — the  hope  of  the  gentlemen  who 
know  it  all,  who,  as  Mr.  Wilson  says,  "have  the  abso- 
lute by  the  wool "  and  are  sure  that  they  ought  to  run 

321 


322  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

the  country — that  by  hook  or  crook,  by  aid  of  the 
Germans  and  all  the  Adullamites  they  may  be  able  to 
squeeze  back  agam  into  the  seats  of  the  mighty. 

Can  they  do  it?  Does  the  country  want  the  Old 
Guard  back,  want  Warren  back  as  Chairman  of 
Military  Affairs  in  the  Senate,  and  Smith  of  the  Navy 
Committee  of  the  House,  and  Smoot,  and  Penrose  and 
all  the  tariff  makers?  Does  it  want  them  back  badly 
enough  to  turn  out  an  administration  which.  Doctor 
Eliot  computes,  has  accomplished  more  that  is  worth 
while  than  the  five  preceding  Republican  adminis- 
trations? 

It  may  be  that  a  skilful  combination  of  animosities 
and  aspirations  will  do  the  job,  but  if  so,  what  is  the 
Old  Guard  going  to  do  with  Hughes,  and  he  with 
them?  The  process  of  co-ordinating  the  incongruous 
will  not  be  rapid.  It  will  take  a  good  while  to  find 
out  who's  who,  and  what  to  do  and  how  to  do  it.  It 
will  be  a  swap  from  a  going  machine  to  a  lot  of  un- 
assembled parts,  and  not  parts  that  have  ever  been 
together  or  were  ever  meant  to  go  together,  but  a 
junk-shop  collection  gathered  from  several  wrecks. 
It  is  not  a  change  to  be  contemplated  with  much 
complacency  with  the  world  in  its  present  condition. 

President  Wilson  said  at  Long  Branch : 

From  this  time  until  the  7th  of  November  it  is  going  to  be 
practically  impossible  for  the  present  administration  to  handle 
any  critical  matter  concerning  our  foreign  relations,  because  all 
foreign  statesmen  are  waiting  to  see  which  way  the  election  goes, 
and  in  the  meantitue  they  know  that  settlements  will  be  in- 
conclusive. 

It  is  bad  enough  to  wait  until  election  day,  but  to 
wait  until  the  fourth  of  March  would  be  seriously 
worse,  especially  with  none  but  seventh  sons  able 
then  to  forecast  what  sort  of  policy  would  succeed 
the  one  election  had  repudiated. 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  323 

If  the  Colonel  were  running  it  would  be  different. 
If  lie  were  elected  we  should  know  at  least  where  we 
were.  The  Colonel  changes  his  mind  as  freely  as 
any  one.  He  changed  it  about  a  third  term,  about 
Taft,  about  the  impossibility  of  the  Progressive 
chickens  ever  coming  back  under  the  Republican 
hen,  but  still  we  have  a  record  of  the  Colonel,  and  can 
measure  him^  and  he  will  usually  disclose  what  his 
mind  is  at  any  given  time. 

He  disclosed  a  good  deal  of  it  in  his  speech  at 
Battle  Creek.  In  so  far  as  he  could,  he  even  put 
back  in  the  Republican  platform  that  discarded  plank 
about  Mr.  Wilson  having  "destroyed  our  influence 
abroad  and  humiliated  us  in  our  own  eyes."  He 
sailed  into  Mr.  Wilson  good  and  plenty,  not  disguis- 
ing that  he  thought  him  a  coward,  a  peace-at-any- 
price  man,  and  an  artificer  of  calamity.  And  he  ex- 
plained what  Mr.  Wilson  ought  to  have  done  in 
several  instances  by  citing  the  exploits  of  a  gentleman 
who  was  President  just  before  Mr.  Taft. 

But  what  did  it  all  come  to? 

It  was  as  though  he  said,  "Mr.  Wilson  is  not  a  bit 
like  me.  He  has  not  done  what  I  should  have  done, 
his  mind  does  not  work  as  mine  does,  his  conception 
of  the  proper  regulation  of  human  affairs  is  totally 
different  from  mine,  and  he  has  not  got  my  grit.  I 
am  right,  and  he  is  dead  wrong.  Gentlemen,  vote  for 
Hughes!" 

But  why  Hughes,  Colonel? 

Why  vote  for  Hughes  because  Mr.  Wilson  is  so  un- 
like you? 

Do  you  really  think  Judge  Hughes  is  materially 
more  like  you  than  Mr.  Wilson  is? 

Oh,  no.  Colonel.  You  can't  think  so.  Leave  it  to 
any  impartial  observer.  Leave  it  to  Mr.  George 
W.  Perkins  if  there  is  any  appreciable  resemblance 
to  you  in  Hughes,  and  whether  your  advocacy  of 


324  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

Hughes  is  not  almost  certain  to  turn  out  another 
horrible  tragedy  of  misplaced  political  affection. 

If  the  Colonel  could  have  wound  up  his  Battle 
Creek  speech  with  the  demand  "Vote  for  me;  I  am 
the  Only  One,"  there  would  have  been  real  point  to 
it,  but  there  is  nothing  for  him  but  futility  and  the 
seeds  of  disappointment  in  his  idea  of  electing  Hughes. 
It  makes  one  feel  that,  after  all,  the  Colonel  is 
only  an  amateur  in  politics.  He  does  not  seem  to 
understand  people.     He  said  at  Battle  Creek: 

I  ask  you  to  test  the  character  and  courage  of  Mr.  Hughes  and 
Mr.  Wilson  by  comparing  their  attitudes  as  regards  the  demands 
of  the  railway  Brotherhoods,  which  culminated  recently  in  the 
miscalled  eight-hour  legislation  at  Washington. 

Let  us  do  it.  Mr.  Wilson  pitched  in,  took  a  big 
responsibility,  stopped  the  strike,  and  made  the  rail- 
roads all  mad  by  getting  Congress  to  pass  the  experi- 
mental Adamson  bill.  Mr.  Hughes,  who  was  under 
no  bonds  of  silent  submission,  lay  low  and  uttered 
never  a  bleat  till  the  bill  was  passed  and  the  danger  of 
a  strike  averted.  Then,  when  insured  against  all 
dangerous  consequences,  he  came  out  bold  as  a  lion 
and  proclaimed  that  the  Adamson  bill  was  the  limit. 
In  this  case,  then,  certainly  the  prize  for  caution  must 
go  to  Mr.  Hughes.  Mr.  Wilson  took  some  chances 
and  great  responsibility.  Mr.  Hughes  carefully 
avoided  taking  either. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  Colonel  would  be  promptly 
disappointed  in  Mr.  Hughes  as  President,  and  no  true 
friend  of  Hoosevelt  should  accept  his  suggestion  to 
vote  for  Hughes.  He  says  that  for  a  year  and  a  half 
he  tried  conscientiously  to  support  Mr.  Wilson  and 
never  reviled  him  in  all  that  time.  That  seems  a  long 
time,  but  for  purposes  of  comparison  the  period  when 
he  was  absent  locating  the  River  of  Doubt,  or  occu- 
pied writing  it  up,  should  be  deducted,  just  as  the 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  325 

period  of  his  absence  in  Africa  and  Europe,  lion-  and 
king-hunting,  should  be  deducted  from  the  elapsed 
time  between  his  retirement  from  the  White  House 
and  the  first  vocalization  of  his  displeasure  with  Mr. 
Taft.  He  gave  the  impression  at  Battle  Creek  that 
he  had  put  up  with  Mr.  Wilson  longer  than  he  usually 
puts  up  with  Presidents,  but  it  may  be  that  he  has 
forgotten  to  deduct  his  absences  from  the  country, 
and  so  reached  a  mistaken  conclusion. 

For  of  course  it  is  no  credit  to  any  ex-President  to 
put  up  with  a  successor  when  he  is  not  in  the  coun- 
try. 

The  truth  seems  to  be  that  the  Colonel  is  not  so 
progressive  as  he  supposes,  but  belongs  to  the  old 
school  of  government  that  believes  in  knocking  the 
block  off  of  any  nation  that  seems  contumacious. 
He  seems  to  suffer  from  that  "insidious  passion  for 
prestige,"  which,  M.  Guyot  says,  has  gotten  Europe 
so  deep  into  war.  Mr.  Wilson  is  very  little  affected  by 
this  ailment,  and  has  indeed  quite  a  valuable  gift 
of  meekness.  But  to  the  Colonel  meekness  is  abhor- 
rent, and  always  was.  He  does  not  seem  to  under- 
stand about  it  at  all,  which  is  odd,  because  he  is  very 
kind  and  has  a  sense  of  humour,  so  you  would  expect 
him  to  understand  everything. 

But,  somehow,  he  is  not  on  to  meekness.  It  is  too 
bad.  And  that  is  one  reason  why  we  must  never  ex- 
pect him  to  like  another  livmg  President. 

As  for  Mr.  Hughes'  courage,  no  doubt  he  has  cour- 
age, but  after  all  it  was  he  who  gave  as  a  reason  for 
coming  out  for  a  constitutional  amendment  about 
woman  suffrage  his  fear  of  the  bitterness  of  the  wo- 
men's fight  for  suffrage.  Is  it  then  so  much  less  timid 
to  advocate  a  constitutional  amendment  to  avoid  the 
bitterness  of  a  fight  with  women,  than  to  urge  an  ex- 
perimental law  to  avert  the  bitterness  of  a  general 
railroad  strike.'^ 


October  19, 1916. 

ISSUES  continue  to  bubble  up  in  this  campaign 
and  remind  us  that  it  won't  be  over  until 
election  day.  There  comes  a  brand-new  big 
one  as  Life  goes  to  press  that  may  put  Mexico  and  the 
Adamson  bill  quite  out  of  people's  heads.  German 
Submarines  Submarines  are  sinking  ships  off  Nantucket 
off  Nan-  lightship.  They  have  bagged  nine,  and 
iucket  whether  the  incoming  steamers  will  arrive 

and  the  outgoing  ones  dare  sail,  nobody  knows. 

There  is  a  compounded  drink  which,  when  all  the 
ingredients  have  been  put  in,  is  brought  to  efficiency 
by  plunging  into  it  a  red-hot  poker. 

Something  like  that  has  suddenly  happened  to  the 
campaign,  for  this  outbreak  of  German  submarines 
on  our  coast  is  an  astonishing  intrusion  of  hot 
metal. 

It  makes  all  that  Mr.  Wilson  has  done  go  for 
nothing  in  the  breathless  concern  about  what  he  will 
do  next. 

Stocks  have  broken  under  the  shock;  shipping  in- 
terests are  palsied;  the  chances  of  steamers  due  are 
matters  of  anxiety. 

The  Colonel  promptly  announces  that  this  is 
just  another  consequence  of  Wilson.  Whatever  the 
President  does  he  will  have,  no  doubt,  the  whole 
opposition  pack  yelping  at  him.  As  a  maritime  in- 
cident what  has  happened  is  notable.  As  a  political 
incident  it  is  crammed  with  explosives. 

It  looks  as  though  at  last  Mr.  Hughes  may  have  to 
discuss  a  crisis  in  the  making  and  say  what  he  would 
do.    Heretofore  he  has  looked  back  and  criticized. 

'    326 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  327 

Possibly  this  audacious  German  exploit  will  bring 
into  the  campaign  the  great  issue  of  the  year — our 
relation  with  Europe. 


October  19,  1916, 

A  GENTLEMAN  in  Cincinnati  who  says  he 
has  been  pleased  with  Life  for  its  opposition 
to  Prussianism  has  written  to  cancel  his 
Lined  Up  Subscription  because  Life's  attitude  to- 
Withthe    ward    Candidate    Hughes,    seems    to    him. 

Hyphens     ^q^    ^old. 

That's  all  right,  of  course,  but  what  is  hard  to 
understand  is  how  an  anti-Prussian  such  as  he  is 
should  insist  upon  herding  us  all  in  with  the  pro- 
Prussian  Germans  to  beat  Mr.  Wilson. 

For  our  part  we  don't  like  the  company  this  Ohio 
brother  is  keeping. 

The  Germans  in  New  Jersey  beat  the  administra- 
tion candidate  in  the  primaries  and  compassed  the 
nomination  of  Martine,  one  of  the  most  absurd  men 
that  ever  sat  in  the  Senate. 

In  Texas  there  are  counties  that  are  almost  solidly 
German  and  they  went  almost  solidly  for  Colquitt 
the  anti- Wilson  man.  In  one  of  these  counties 
Culberson,  the  administration  candidate,  got  three 
votes.  In  another  he  got  sixty  votes  to  eight  hun- 
dred for  Colquitt.  Culberson  won  easily  because 
there  were  not  Germans  enough  in  Texas  to  beat  him, 
but  the  German  counties  there  told  unmistakably 
the  sentiments  of  the  German  voters. 

Everywhere  in  the  country  the  Germans  are  out  to 
beat  Wilson  and  elect  Hughes,  and  not  for  American 
reasons  but  for  German  reasons. 

If  Mr.  Hughes  is  elected  it  will  be  the  German  vote 
that  will  do  the  job.  He  will  get  it  because  Wilson 
has  not  satisfied  the  Germans.     He  has  not  stopped 

328 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  329 

the  export  of  munitions,  he  has  not  broken  yet  with 
England,  and  he  has  not  pussy-footed  with  the 
Hyphens. 

He  has  been  content  to  keep  our  government 
neutral.  He  has  not  insisted  that  it  be  pro-German. 
Therefore  the  Hyphens  are  all  stacked  up  to  run  him 
out  of  office,  and  they  may  succeed.  Certainly  Mr. 
Hughes  is  not  going  to  prevent  them.  Nothing  is 
permitted  to  escape  him,  even  in  his  most  melted 
moods,  that  could  detach  a  German  vote. 

How  do  the  pro-Ally  and  pro-American  Republi- 
cans feel  about  that? 

How  does  the  Tribune  feel? 

How  does  Colonel  Roosevelt  feel? 

How  does  Mr.  Bacon  feel?  Does  he  think  he  got 
many  German  votes  in  the  Republican  primaries? 

How  does  Mr.  Wickersham  feel — Mr.  Wickersham 
who  was  for  sending  home  the  German  ambassador 
in  short  order  after  the  Lusitania  was  sunk? 

How  do  several  million  other  Republicans  and 
Progressives  feel  about  hitching  up  in  this  fashion 
with  the  Hyphens  to  elect  a  candidate  whose  best 
bower  in  this  campaign  is  the  German  vote  and  whose 
utmost  care  is  to  say  nothing  to  scare  it  off? 

Our  Ohio  friend  has  had  his  remittance  returned 
to  him  and  his  subscription  cancelled.  That  much 
Life  can  do  for  him  and  does  it  willingly.  More  than 
that  it  offers  him  its  sympathy  because  of  the  pre- 
dicament in  which  he  finds  himself,  an  anti-Prussian, 
convinced  that  so  he  should  be,  and  yet  lined  up 
with  all  the  Hyphens  in  Cincinnati  to  beat  the  can- 
didate that  the  pro-Prussians  don't  want. 


October  ^6, 1916,    ' 

MR.  HUGHES  as  the  Republican  organist  is 
doing  his  best,  and  nobody  in  the  audience 
ought  to  shoot  at  him. 

The  Evening  Post,  on  October  14th,  confejssed 
elaborately,  to  more  than  a  column  length,  that  his 
Hughes  Is  Campaign  had  been  a  woeful  disappoint- 
Faithful  ment  to  his  friends  and  admirers.  Its 
testimony  to  that  effect  made  the  most  interesting 
newspaper  editorial  printed  on  that  day.  The  Hughes 
failure,  it  said,  was  something  like  a  calamity;  a 
public  loss  that  we  have  suffered,  a  national  asset 
melting  away  under  our  eyes. 

Really,  we  had  not  thought  of  it  quite  in  that  light. 
At  the  time  we  stopped  reading  the  Judge's  speeches 
he  seemed  to  be  saying  most  of  what  there  was  for 
him  to  say. 

What  was  he  put  up  for.f^  To  unite  the  Republi- 
cans and  win  votes  to  fetch  them  back  into  power. 

Certainly  he  has  been  faithful.  He  has  got  the 
Republicans  and  Progressives  not  exactly  blended, 
but  tolerably  mixed  together,  and  he  has  faithfully 
mentioned  and  reiterated  such  things  as  seemed 
adapted  to  persuade  the  independent  voters  to  vote 
them  back  into  office. 

Is  he  Charlie  Chaplin  that  he  should  be  a  public 
entertainer?  Not  at  all.  He  is  Charles  Hughes, 
lately  a  judge;  now  a  candidate,  and  constrained  by 
the  conditions  of  his  new  employment  to  avoid 
topics  and  ebullitions  which  would  detach  from  the 
Republican  ticket  more  votes  than  they  would  entice. 

Of  course  Mr.  Hughes  was  out  of  practice;  of 

330 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  331 

course  his  mind  for  six  years  had  been  closely  applied 
to  cases  in  law,  to  the  prejudice  of  his  agility  in  con- 
temporary political  assault;  of  course  he  has  had  be- 
hind him  two  different  parties  strongly  bent  only 
four  years  ago  on  cutting  each  other's  political 
throat,  and  still  advocates  of  opposed  political 
theories;  of  course  he  had  to  be  neutral  in  the  big  war 
issue  or  lose  more  votes  than  he  could  win  by  taking 
either  side.  All  these  circumstances  were  handicaps 
to  him  as  a  campaigner.  He  had  been  chosen  can- 
didate because  he  had  been  out  of  the  political  melee 
for  six  years  and  had  not  disclosed  any  opinions.  Not 
having  known  opinions  made  him  available,  but  in 
order  to  make  that  availability  productive  in  the 
campaign  it  was  necessary  to  continue  to  a  large 
extent  the  condition  that  produced  it.  Not  even  as  a 
campaigner  was  it  safe  for  him  to  divulge  more  than 
the  minimum  of  specific  convictions.  Only  on  one 
subject  could  he  let  himself  out.  That  was  Wilson's 
incompetence  and  the  mess  he  has  made  of  govern- 
ment. 

Under  the  circumstances,  has  Mr.  Hughes  really 
done  so  ill?  He  has  worked  hard  and  talked  as  much 
as  he  could  on  the  narrow  range  of  subjects  consistent 
with  prudence.  His  latest  speech  at  this  writing  was 
one  at  Lincoln,  Nebraska.  He  denounced  the  sug- 
gestion that  a  vote  for  him  was  a  vote  for  war.  "I 
am  a  man  of  peace,"  he  said;  "I  do  not  desire  war;  I 
do  not  desire  petty  wars;  I  do  not  desire  war  in 
Mexico.  I  believe  in  correct  policies."  He  said 
Wilson's  Mexican  policy  was  not  correct;  that  the 
Adamson  bill  was  "gold-brick  legislation"  (as  very 
likely  it  was),  and  that  our  present  prosperity  was  a 
spree  of  economic  intoxication.  His  disapproval  of 
Mr.  Wilson  was  hearty,  and  he  said  nothing  offensive 
to  the  German  vote. 

What  would  any  one  have  the  good  man  say? 


332  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

If  the  amalgamated  Republicans  had  a  better  can- 
didate, where  is  he  to  be  found? 

Is  Roosevelt  making  more  votes  than  Hughes? 

Probably  not.  The  Republican  managers  don't 
seem  to  dare  to  let  the  Colonel  loose  except  in  selected 
political  jungles. 

Taken  by  and  large,  Mr.  Wilson's  record  is  very 
strong.  Mr.  Hughes  would  find  it  hard  to  tackle 
even  if  he  was  a  real  political  Charlie  Chaplin.  In 
most  cases  he  does  not  venture  to  sav  that  he  would 
have  done  something  different  from  what  Mr.  Wilson 
did,  but  merely  that  he  would  have  done  it  differently. 
Hughes  thinks,  Roosevelt  thinks,  Root  thinks,  that 
they  could  have  bettered  the  Wilson  manner,  but  in 
the  European  concerns  they  seldom  venture  to  de- 
nounce the  Wilson  fact.  And  when  they  do  they  are 
not  convincing.  They  thunder  in  the  index  of  the 
Democratic  administration;  they  join  the  Wall 
Street  Journal  to  warn  the  country  against  the  risk  of 
"four  years  more  of  the  cowardice,  incompetence,  and 
mischief  of  the  past"  four  years,  but  when  one 
searches  for  a  fact  the  single  one  forthcoming  is  a 
promise  to  raise  the  tariff. 

It  has  been  a  hard  case  for  Mr.  Hughes.  The 
administration  which  it  has  been  his  errand  to  dis- 
parage and  denounce  has,  on  the  whole,  been  very 
able  and  successful.  It  has  had  blemishes;  some  bad 
ones;  but  most  of  them  rather  absurd  than  serious. 
The  main  thing  that  has  made  it  unpopular  with 
many  generous-minded  people  has  been  the  fact  and 
manner  of  its  neutrality  in  the  great  war.  There 
have  been  times  since  August,  two  years  since,  when 
many  Americans  have  felt  that  we  ought  to  be  in  with 
the  Allies.  Some  still  feel  so,  and  one  honours  their 
sentiment,  but  the  much  more  common  disposition 
is  to  be  reconciled  to  keep  out,  but  indignant  at  being 
kept  out. 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  333 

The  Republicans,  in  view  of  the  general  sentiment 
of  the  country,  cannot  afford  to  profess  to  want  to  get 
the  country  into  the  war,  but  they  can  afford,  and 
do  offer,  a  violent  indignation  at  the  manner  of  our 
keeping  out.  They  are  not  a  bit  more  likely  to  get 
into  the  war  than  Mr.  Wilson  is,  but  they  are  much 
freer  to  howl  over  the  disgrace  of  the  incidents  of  our 
neutrality. 

The  voters  seem  loath  to  believe  that  there  has 
been  any  such  disgrace,  or  that  any  reluctance  of  the 
country  under  Mr.  Wilson's  leadership  to  do  its  inter- 
national duty  will  be  cured  by  the  defeat  of  the  man 
whom  German  sentiment  condemns  and  the  election 
of  the  man  whom  German  sentiment  favours.  The 
Germans  are  not  solicitous  about  the  honour  of  the 
United  States.  Their  concern  is  for  the  advantage  of 
Germany,  and  they  are  out  to  beat  the  man  who,  they 
think,  impeded  it. 

Mr.  Hughes  conciliating  the  German  vote  and  talk- 
ing about  the  "miserable  weakness  and  diplomatic 
misconduct"  of  the  ins,  is  not  a  particularly  inviting 
figure  for  the  indignant  to  rally  round.  But  we  doubt 
that  any  Republican  could  have  done  any  better.  If 
the  Judge  is  beaten  it  will  not  be  because  he  is  a  weak 
candidate  or  a  bad  campaigner,  but  because  the  Re- 
publican party  and  policies  are  still  nebulous  and 
feeble,  and  the  Democrats  have  not  yet  been  foolish 
enough  to  warrant  a  change.  Mr.  Hughes  has 
played  the  hand  fairly  well,  but  he  has  had  mighty 
poor  cards. 


November  9,  1916, 

AS  ONE  reads  the  last  outcries  of  the  campaign 
the  impression  strengthens  that  this  issue  of 
^  Life  will  find  a  large  proportion  of  the  voters 
trying  to  forgive  themselves  for  voting  as  they  did. 
There  were  very  persuasive  reasons  against  voting 
End  of  the  for  either  candidate,  and  most  of  them  were 
Campaign  presented.  Most  people  voted  as  usual  ac- 
cording to  their  hereditary  political  bias,  without 
much  regard  to  these  objections,  but  a  great  many 
voters  did  regard  them  and  were  swayed  first  this 
way  and  then  that  as  one  or  another  phase  of  the 
situation  came  uppermost  in  their  minds. 

There  probably  never  was  a  presidential  election  in 
this  coimtry  in  which  so  many  voters  voted  for  a  man 
they  didn't  want.  Thousands  of  votes  were  cast  for 
Wilson  not  from  any  pleasure  in  Wilson  but  because 
the  alternative  was  to  vote  for  Hughes.  Thou- 
sands of  votes  were  cast  for  Hughes  not  from  plea- 
sure in  him  nor  from  any  desire  to  bring  back  the 
old  Republican  party  into  office,  but  because  there 
was  no  other  way  to  beat  Wilson. 

So,  however  the  election  has  gone,  the  country  is 
not  going  to  break  out  into  any  violent  blaze  of  joy. 
The  proper  candidate  this  year  would  have  been  the 
Archangel  Michael.  People,  uncertain  themselves 
about  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  an  unprecedented  sit- 
uation, wanted  a  leader  who  they  were  sure  was  right, 
and  who  had  the  powers  and  the  courage  to  make  us 
all  do  what  ought  to  be  done.  St.  Michael  not  being 
available,  we  have  had  to  make  a  choice  of  merely 
human  and  erring  intelligences.     But  it  has  been  a 

334 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  335 

trial,  and  the  path  ahead  looks  so  crooked  and  so 
stony  that  there  will  be  many  hesitations  either  to 
congratulate  ourselves  on  the  result  of  our  efforts,  or 
to  congratulate  the  winner  on  having  won. 

But  at  least  all  the  flubdub  and  uproar  and  charge- 
and-countercharge  of  the  campaign  are  over,  and 
that  is  basis  for  a  little  solid  joy.  Whoever  is  elected, 
we  can  now  get  back  to  the  business  of  living,  and  if 
Mr.  Wilson  has  won  we  can  adjust  our  minds  at  once 
to  a  prospect  that  will  cover  four  years.  If  Mr. 
Wilson  has  won  we  know  more  or  less  what  to  figure 
on.  If  Mr.  Hughes  has  got  it  we  must  flounder 
go vernmen tally  for  three  months,  and  that  w^ill  be 
trying. 

But  whoever  is  in  we  have  got  to  take  what  comes, 
and  most  of  the  time  have  got  to  back  the  govern- 
ment. That  being  so  we  would  do  well,  perhaps,  to 
think  more  of  ourselves  as  the  nation  and  not  so 
much  of  our  government.  After  all,  the  mass  of  us 
and  not  the  President  is  the  main  thing.  It  makes 
a  difference  what  our  government  does,  but  it  does  not 
make  all  the  difference.  Other  governments  deal 
with  our  government,  but  they  keep  one  eye  on  us. 
We  are  power,  money,  industry;  we  are  public 
opinion,  and  in  the  long  run  we  must  be  reckoned 
with.  We  have  just  delegated  the  most  conspicuous 
of  our  governmental  powers  for  another  four  years, 
but  we  have  not  delegated  all  our  powers.  We  shall 
still  help  to  run  the  country,  and  though  we  shall  seem 
to  be  pretty  helpless,  and  will  get  mighty  little  credit 
for  assistance,  we  shall  help  and  w^e  shall  count.  ' 

What  brought  Mr.  Wilson's  stumbling  and  in-' 
experienced  steps  along  through  the  last  two  years 
without  disaster? 

We  did. 

We  are  the  horse-power  that  brings  the  national 
car  along  and  keeps  it  moving  when  the  going  is  bad 


336  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

and  the  guidance  uncertain.  Look  at  all  Mr.  Wil- 
son's mistakes  and  delays — for  good  measure,  take 
the  late  comprehensive  Republican  estimate  of  them 
— what  is  it  that  has  overcome  most  of  the  ill-effects 
of  them?  What  but  the  steady  chug-chug  of  the  en- 
gine which  is  us.^ 

We  are  a  good  engine;  let  us  give  ourselves  that 
praise.  Bad  driving  may  send  us  to  the  repair  shop, 
but  we  are  a  good  engine,  and  if  Mr.  Hughes  has  got 
in  he  will  have  the  advantage  of  our  excellent  ener- 
gies just  as  Mr.  Wilson  has  had  it.  If  Mr.  Hughes 
makes  mistakes  we  will  still  chug-chug  up-grade  and 
over  the  hill;  if  he  gets  off  the  road  we  will  chug-chug 
back  into  it  again.  Presidents  are  all  sorts;  govern- 
ments are  all  sorts.  Our  national  specialty  is  inex- 
perienced rulers.  If  they  get  us  in  wrong  we  are  to 
blame,  for  we  prefer  them  untrained.  But  we  can 
stand  some  monkeying,  for  we  are  a  good  engine. 

Excuse  these  inflated  remarks,  but  certainly  it  is 
time  to  make  them.  Whoever  is  elected  President, 
come,  brethren,  let  us  feel  better.  Have  we  not  had 
humiliation  enough  for  the  time  being  .^  For  three 
months  the  Republican  spell-binders  have  been  telling 
us,  as  freely  and  frequently  as  they  dared,  that  we 
were  a  disgraced  people,  delinquent  at  home  and 
despised  abroad.  It  was  mostly  a  lie,  but  it  has  been 
rubbed  in  to  beat  the  truth.  Now,  either  the  chief 
factor  in  our  alleged  disgrace  has  had  notice  of  dis- 
missal, or  he  has  had  a  vote  of  confidence  and  orders 
to  go  on.  Either  way,  for  the  very  land's  sake,  let 
us  feel  better  and  hold  our  heads  a  little  higher. 
Whoever  is  elected,  we  have  a  great  part  to  play  in  the 
world,  and  should  make  bold  at  once  to  play  it,  and 
give  due  backing  and  more  to  whomsoever  is  elected 
to  lead  us.  If  the  Republicans  are  coming  in,  let  us 
hold  them  to  the  task  of  repairing  the  injuries  which 
they  represent  to  have  bruised  the  honour  of  the  na- 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  337 

tion.  If  the  Democrats  stay  in  let  us  insist  that  they 
justify  their  calling,  and  their  guidance  of  the  in- 
comparable mechanism  which  they  are  trusted  to 
steer. 

Praise  be,  the  weary  job  of  electing  a  President  is 
done,  and  we  are  out  of  the  doldrums  and  can  make 
sail  again  and  get  somewhere.  Who  is  chosen  mat- 
ters less  than  we  think.  What  matters  is  the  honour 
of  the  United  States.  Whoever  has  been  chosen  its 
guardian,  let  him  look  to  his  job. 


November  23, 1916, 

)iND  so,  after  all,  the  Celestials  won,  and  the 
/-\  Carnals  went  back  to  grass! 
-^  -^  It  was  a  wonderful  election;  so  close,  so 
protracted,  and  (as  yet)  no  fighting  about  it.  It  is  a 
great  credit  to  us  to  go  through  the  agitations  of  so 
Mr.  Wilson  vital  a  matter  so  peaceably.  A  disputed 
Wilis  Out  verdict  to  drag  on  in  the  courts  would  be 
a  very  much  greater  misfortune  than  the  defeat  of 
either  party.  Happily,  nothing  serious  in  that  line 
threatens.  Victory,  after  hanging  by  the  eyelids  for 
three  days,  seems  to  have  dropped  into  the  Demo- 
cratic lap,  there  to  abide. 

A  very  great  advantage  of  having  Mr.  Wilson  win 
is  that  his  new  administration  begins  at  once.  There 
will  be  changes,  doubtless,  on  the  fourth  of  March, 
but  there  is  no  need  of  waiting  until  then  to  start  any- 
thing the  administration  has  in  mind.  We  have 
been  invited  of  late  to  agree  with  the  opinion  that  Mr. 
Wilson  has  gone  off  in  quality  since  he  was  first 
elected,  and  is  not  the  man  he  was  four  years  ago. 
We  prefer  to  believe  that  he  is  a  man  as  good,  physi- 
cally and  mentally,  as  he  ever  was,  and  much  better 
qualified  to  manage  our  concerns,  especially  our  for- 
eign concerns,  than  he  was  in  1912.  He  knows  far 
more  than  he  did  then;  facts,  as  he  has  admitted, 
have  put  to  rout  various  of  his  theoretical  opinions; 
he  is  relieved  of  the  embarrassment  of  having  an  un- 
suitable Secretary  of  State,  and  he  comes  out  of  the 
election  with  an  accession  of  prestige  which  will  enable 
him  to  put  increased  power  behind  any  policies  that 
he  concludes  to  pursue.     He  is  a  much  bigger  man  in 


ooo 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  3S9 

Europe,  and  even  in  Mexico,  than  he  was  on  Novem- 
ber 7th. 

Reviewing  and  discarding  its  opinions  based  on  the 
early  returns  on  election  night,  the  Tribune  declared 
two  days  later  that  the  later  returns  constituted  the 
most  remarkable  personal  indorsement  that  had  come 
to  a  Democratic  President  since  the  days  of  Andrew 
Jackson.  The  problem  of  Election  Day,  it  said,  was 
not  whether  Mr.  Hughes  or  Mr.  Wilson  would  be 
elected,  but  w^hether  the  public  would  accept  or  re- 
ject Mr.  Wilson.  It  finds  that  it  accepted  him,  and 
finds  him  consequently  "the  strongest  man  politically 
in  the  nation;  a  man  to  be  reckoned  with  because  of 
his  hold  upon  popular  imagination  and  public  ap- 
proval." 

That  is  a  very  interesting  opinion  from  a  paper  that 
has  cursed  out  Mr.  Wilson's  performance  with  so 
much  heartiness  as  the  Tribune  has.  It  does  not 
necessarily  imply  any  change  of  view  as  to  Mr  Wil- 
son's past  policies,  but  it  admits,  with  a  candour  to 
admire,  that  he  has  got  the  goods,  got  them  to  an 
extent  that  the  Tribune  finds  astonishing. 

So  he  has.  The  country  is  behind  him ;  will  be  more 
and  more  behind  him  if  it  can  see  its  way.  He  has  the 
cards,  and  if  it  is  in  him  to  play  a  great  game,  there  is 
nothing  to  hinder.  There  is  very  little  need  for  him  to 
think  more  of  domestic  politics.  He  can  give  his 
whole  strength  to  the  needs  of  the  country  and  of  the 
world. 

The  great  need  of  the  country  is  for  something  to 
elevate  its  self-respect. 

It  is  not  satisfied  with  its  dealings  in  Mexico,  nor 
quite  with  its  attitude  towards  a  distressed  world. 
'J'he  miseries  of  Mexico  distress  it;  the  miseries  of 
Europe  wring  its  heart.  It  would  willingly  be  used 
to  abate  them,  if  this  leader  whom  it  has  indorsed 
could  find  a  way. 


S40  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

That  is  Mr.  Wilson's  present  problem.  For  weeks, 
and  by  necessity,  the  government  has  been  marking 
time,  while  the  dice  have  been  rattling  in  the  cups. 
Now  the  throw  has  been  made.  On  with  the  game! 
Mexico,  especially  in  the  northern  provinces,  is  in 
a  bad  case.  There  is  a  whole  new  set  of  U-boat 
smashes  to  pass  on.  The  signs  are  that  something 
important  will  be  done  in  both  cases,  and,  happily, 
now,  whatever  is  done,  it  cannot  be  said  that  it  is 
done  to  affect  votes.  The  only  motives  for  action 
that  are  now  left  to  Mr.  Wilson  are  the  good  of  man- 
kind and  the  honour  of  the  country. 


m 


November  SO,  1916. 

HAVING  re-elected  Mr.  Wilson  at  so  much 
pains  and  expense,  we  are  surely  warranted 
in  lying  back,  at  least  till  Congress  meets, 
and  letting  him  run  the  government.  If  the  gentle- 
men who  write  the  leaded  leaders  in  the  papers  are 
Eoves  relieved  for  a  short  space  of  the  charge 
Renewed  of  mankind,  they  will  doubtless  be  glad  to 
have  a  little  spell  of  rest.  After  their  vociferous 
labours  in  the  campaign  they  are  entitled  to  roll  in  the 
pasture  lot  and  eat  some  grass. 

This  is  the  hopefulest  season  for  us  that  there  has 
been  since  the  battle  of  the  Marne.  Perhaps  Life  is 
oversanguine,  but  it  has  a  feeling,  which  must  be 
widely  shared,  that  our  dismal  period  of  moral  prep- 
aration is  coming  to  a  close  and  that  the  administra- 
tion, taught  by  tremendous  experience  and  immensely 
strengthened  by  the  issue  of  the  election,  is  going  to 
lead  the  country  in  paths  by  far  more  satisfying  to 
tread  than  those  we  have  had  to  lag  in  these  last  two 
years.  The  Mexican  dispute,  the  U-boat  inquiry,  and 
the  railroad-labour  controversy  have  each  the  possi- 
bilities of  a  fight  in  it.  They  are  all  coming  along  to- 
gether, and  we  may  get  into  all  three  fights  at  once. 
But  nobody  seems  worried.  All  these  troubles,  if  we 
should  get  into  them,  are  within  our  means,  and  in 
each  of  them,  if  we  got  in,  we  should  simply  be  mak- 
ing good  on  our  plain  obligations.  And,  of  course, 
that  very  strength  of  our  position  will  probably  keep 
the  peace  for  us. 

There  is  no  fight  visible  in  the  Belgian  deportations 
matter,  no  matter  what  we  do,  but  it  is  the  most  ap- 

341 


S42  THE  DIARY  0¥  A  NATION 

pealing  complication  of  all.  Our  government  is  bound 
to  hear  what  Berlin  has  to  say  before  taking  any 
action,  but  the  facts  seem  plain  enough,  and  it  may  be 
that  it  is  a  case  of  Opportunity  coming  back  and 
knocking  a  second  time  at  a  door  that  did  not  open  in 
1914. 

Belgium  is  one  of  the  few  remaining  places  where 
the  present  German  Government  can  have  its  way 
completely,  carry  out  its  ideas  of  civilization,  and 
make  manifest  how  it  would  deal  with  the  rest  of  the 
world  if  it  got  the  chance.  Whenever  we  begin  to  say 
to  ourselves  that  the  Germans  are  a  brave  people,  and 
their  methods  have  much  merit,  and  that  we  ought  to 
think  better  of  them,  along  comes  some  new  demon- 
stration in  Belgium  of  the  terrible  incompatibility  of 
the  Prussian  conception  of  the  uses  of  power  with  the 
standards  of  behaviour  that  the  civilized  world  ap- 
proves. 

It  has  been  the  awful  fate  of  Belgium  to  be  the 
object-lesson  by  which  mankind  has  been  taught  the 
nature  of  the  Prussian  spirit.  Perhaps  some  day  the 
surviving  Belgians  will  rejoice  that  the  lesson  was  so 
thoroughly  taught,  but  meanwhile  the  instruction  is 
hard  for  all  of  us  to  bear,  and  we  hope  fervently  that 
it  is  nearly  over. 

As  for  us  in  this  country,  things  somehow  seem  to 
be  coming  more  our  way  in  the  great  world  mix-up. 
The  aspect  of  Europe  towards  us  seems  to  be  changing. 
We  seem  to  get  more  and  more  necessary,  and  to  be 
regarded  with  less  displeasure  as  Europe  leans  on  us 
more  and  more.  Conceivably  we  are  going  to  be 
waked  up  and  become  of  visible  use  to  the  world. 
There  are  those  in  Europe  who  think  our  reelected 
President  is  one  of  the  remarkable  characters — per- 
haps the  most  remarkable — of  his  time,  and  who  look 
to  see  him  make  himself  and  the  nation  that  is  back- 
ing him  extremely  useful  to  the  world.     As  to  that, 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  343 

we  can  tell  better  after  we  know.  We  have  had  a 
good  many  pipe-dreams  since  the  war  began  and  this 
may  be  another.  But  certainly  the  election  has  left 
Mr.  Wilson  in  a  position  of  great  possibilities. 
Nothing  like  the  prestige  it  has  brought  him  would 
have  accrued  now  to  Mr.  Hughes  if  he  had  won. 


December  7, 1916. 

THE  best  Christmas  present  the  world  could 
have  this  year  would  be  peace;  the  next  best,  a 
new  insight  into  values. 

The  war  makes  one  feel  that  many  things  men  and 
nations  have  striven  for  these  many  generations  are 
Christmas,  trash,  and  that  humanity  needs  new  light, 
1916  or  a  far  better  application  of  the  light  it  has. 

There  would  not  be  this  great  war  if  enough  people 
had  been  able  to  distinguish  between  what  is  valuable 
and  what  is  not.  It  was  due  to  a  craving  for  material 
possessions  and  for  world  power  to  command  them. 
One  of  the  richest  and  ablest  countries  brought  it  on 
in  a  calculated  attempt  to  impose  its  doctrines  and  its 
wishes  on  mankind,  and  take  an  increased  toll  from 
civilization.  Resistance  to  this  infatuate  purpose  has 
filled  the  earth  with  ruin  and  sorrow,  bringing  down 
on  the  chief  offender  an  appalling  retribution,  bearing 
hardly  less  heavily  on  the  instruments  of  justice,  and 
involving  millions  of  lookers-on  whose  wish  was  to 
keep  out  of  it. 

A  terrible  job  it  has  always  been  to  break  a  strong 
nation  of  the  craze  for  world  dominion,  but  in  the  end 
it  always  has  to  be  done,  and  is  done.  World 
dominion  is  so  clearly  foredoomed  to  crack  and  perish 
that  one  would  think  that  human  wisdom  would  re- 
ject it,  and  yet  for  thousands  of  years,  ever  since 
history  began,  peoples  have  had  crazes  to  get  it,  or 
have  been  dragged  into  pursuit  of  it  by  their  masters. 

The  present  plight  of  the  world  is  due  to  a  breach 
of  the  tenth  commandment,  and  it  is  so  bad  as  to 
make  one  wonder  wdiether  anything,  whether  life 

344 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  M5 

itself,  is  worth  coveting.  That  wonder  is  the  like- 
Hest  symptom  of  improvement  that  appears.  When 
enough  people  are  agreed  that  life,  as  they  know  it,  is 
not  worth  while,  there  is  apt  to  come  a  concerted 
movement  to  improve  it.  Such  a  movement  we  may 
hope  to  see  follow  the  war,  and  we  must  expect  to  see 
the  war  go  on  until  most  of  the  people  concerned  in  it 
have  got  new  convictions  about  what  is  valuable  in 
this  life.  Every  nation  in  Europe,  most  of  all  the 
great  Culprit,  is  gradually  changing  its  estimates 
about  that,  and  edging  towards  the  valuables  that  are 
compatible  with  peace  on  earth,  and  away  from  those 
which  necessitate  war. 

Europe's  mind  is  gradually  clearing,  but  our  minds 
in  these  States  are  very  confused.  A  great  many  of 
us  are  conscious  of  a  dull  dissatisfaction,  to  account 
for  which  we  offer  all  manner  of  conflicting  reasons. 
It  appeared  the  other  day  in  the  election  that  about 
half  of  us  believe  that  the  trouble  is  that  our  govern- 
ment has  not  been  equal  to  the  situation,  and  the 
other  half  think  that  if  our  government  had  not  been 
unusually  able  we  should  have  been  feeling  much 
worse  than  we  are.  We  do  not  agree  as  to  what  is 
good  for  us.  We  were  never  so  rich,  and  seldom  so 
disgruntled.  We  are  by  no  means  desirous  to  be  in 
the  war,  and  yet  we  are  far  from  satisfied  in  staying 
out.  We  are  getting  in  quantities  of  money,  and  are 
resigned  to  that,  but  have  horrible  misgivings  that 
Providence  is  favouring  us  in  the  pocket  at  the  cost 
of  our  souls.  Some  of  us  fear  that  the  war  will  pass 
without  our  getting  any  adequate  discipline.  Others 
fear  it  will  not.  Many  of  us  believe  that  we  need  dis- 
cipline more  than  money,  but  it  is  hard  for  a  nation  to 
embrace  discipline  by  choice,  and  we  fear  that  it  will 
not  be  forced  upon  us  soon  enough  to  save  us.  Realh% 
the  pith  of  much  of  the  dissatisfaction  with  our  Presi- 
dent is  that  he  has  not  laid  us  on  the  altar  of  sacrifice. 


346  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

He  won't,  if  he  can  help  it.  No  President  will.  It 
is  not  good  politics  to  lay  one's  country  on  the  altar 
of  sacrifice  if  it  can  honorably  be  avoided.  No  one 
has  the  right  to  do  it. 

We  seem  to  lack  troubles,  but  that  is  a  want  that  is 
usually  supplied  in  time,  and  we  may  get  ours  at  any 
moment,  and  even  in  our  Christmas  stocking.  But  it 
is  interesting  that  we  should  be  so  prospered  and  so 
disturbed  about  it;  so  fat  and  so  unsatisfied.  It 
argues  a  general  suspicion  that  the  spiritual  things  are 
the  most  worth,  and  no  extent  of  material  benefit 
makes  up  for  spiritual  shortage.  We  are  invited  to 
make  ourselves  so  strong  in  arms  and  navies  that 
Fate  will  not  be  able  to  call  us  to  account.  The  ad- 
vice seems  sound,  but  however  perfectly  we  follow  it. 
Fate  will  call  us  to  account.  Incessantly  we  sow; 
inexorably  we  reap;  nor  armies  nor  navies  will  pro- 
tect us  from  the  harvest  if  our  sowing  is  bad.  Ex- 
ternal defenses  are  no  protection  against  internal 
disease.  Rules  cannot  save  us,  because  circum- 
stances change  and  rules  fail.  But  a  sound  spirit 
will  save  us,  if  not  from  mistakes,  at  least  from 
destruction. 

That  is  our  great  need  now,  the  leading  of  a  sound 
and  wise  spirit,  that  is  not  rash  nor  truculent,  but  will 
not  shrink  from  hurt  or  danger  in  a  just  cause;  that 
will  not  lean  on  force  in  a  bad  cause,  nor  lack  it  in  a 
good  one;  that  loves  his  neighbour,  big  or  small,  and 
will  help  him  in  his  necessity. 

That  is  the  spirit  of  Christmas,  and  not  by  any 
other  will  the  world  improve. 


December  SI,  1916. 

LLOYD  GEORGE'S  elevation  to  the  top  of  the 
British  Government  is  a  wonderful  thing. 
-^  Our  papers  tell  us  he  is  dictator  in  all  but 
name.  England  needs  a  great  man,  for  if  the  war  is 
to  be  won  for  the  Allies,  England  must  do  better. 
Lloyd  France  can  hardly  do  much  better  than  she 
George  j^as  douc.  There  is  room  for  improvement  in 
Russia,  but  the  difficulty  of  achieving  it  is  great.  But 
England  knows  she  must  do  better,  is  sure  she  can, 
and,  with  the  help  of  Alfred  Harmsworth,  has  picked 
out  Lloyd  George  as  the  man  to  make  her  do  it. 

We  all  know  Lloyd  George,  and  don't  have  to  be 
introduced  to  him.  We  know  he  is  the  most  active 
dynamo  in  England,  and  we  all  know  how  very  much 
he  differs  from  the  typical  British  statesman.  A  good 
many  bad  ailments  can  be  cured  in  England  by  a  man 
who  has  enough  brains  and  enough  power.  Lloyd 
George  has  brains — a  wonderful  understanding  of  his 
fellow-creatures,  and  sympathy  with  them — and  he 
has  marvellous  energy,  and  now  he  has  power  almost 
without  limit.  England's  Irish  question  could  have 
been  cleaned  up  long  ago  if  any  one  who  was  com- 
petent had  had  the  power  to  do  it.  Probably  Lloyd 
George  will  do  it.  England's  rum  question  could 
have  been  cleared  up  just  as  readily.  Lloyd  George  is 
expected  to  attend  to  that,  too.  And  the  labour 
questions  as  they  may  come  up,  and  so  on,  and  on, 
and  on,  to  and  through  the  great  question  of  getting  all 
the  power  of  England  into  the  war. 

In  the  Temple  Church  (near  the  law  courts)  in 
London,  on  the  Sunday  after  our  election,  the  Master 

S47 


348  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

of  the  Temple,  when  he  had  finished  his  sermon,  paused 
and  said  to  his  astonished  congregation  that  since 
it  appeared  to  be  quite  certain  that  Doctor  Wilson 
had  been  elected  President  of  the  United  States  and 
so  seemed  certain  to  be  called  to  take  part  in  the 
peace  negotiations  which  would  befall  during  the 
next  four  years,  "I  would  ask  3^ou  to  pray  for  him  for 
a  few  moments,  that  he  may  have  the  divine  guidance 
in  all  that  he  may  do." 

Surely  that  showed  a  wise  spirit  in  the  Master  of 
the  Temple.  Here,  now,  is  Lloyd  George,  chosen  to 
cure  the  shortcomings  of  England,  to  strengthen  her 
thews  and  extend  her  reach  and  help  her  to  win  a 
great  peace  that  will  bring  new  hope  to  a  battered 
world. 

It  is  a  load  of  Atlas  that  rests  on  the  little  Welsh- 
man's shoulders. 

Are  any  of  the  brethren  hereabouts  prayerfully 
inclined.'^ 

There  is  their  man ! 


December  28y  1916, 

OF  COURSE  it  was  news  of  great  moment  that 
Germany  had  proposed  negotiations  for 
peace,  and  seemed  to  be  ready  to  divulge  the 
terms  on  which  she  would  be  content  to  stop  fighting. 
Her  proposals  have  been  received  with  enthusiasm 
Peace  by  the  pacifists  and  all  the  shorts  in  the 
Proposals  stock-market.  We  have  had  prodigious 
slaughters  of  war-stocks,  at  which  persons  not 
implicated  have  looked  on  cheerfully.  Otherwise  no 
progress  has  been  made  up  to  this  writing.  Through 
Spain,  Switzerland,  and  the  United  States,  Germany's 
suggestion  has  been  transmitted  without  remarks  to 
the  Allies,  but  in  advance  of  that  we  have  had  a  wild 
whurroo  of  comment  from  all  quarters,  belligerent 
and  neutral,  to  the  general  effect  that  Germany  must 
not  hope  to  pull  the  leg  of  Europe. 

All  the  same,  one  would  like  to  know  what  is  Ger- 
many's present  notion  of  a  basis  for  peace,  and  also 
what  the  Allies  will  take  to  quit. 


349 


January  ^,  1917. 

TO  ONE  of  the  fabricators  of  Life  there  came 
on  December  12th  the  following  letter: 

I  wonder  what  would  shake  you  up.     Nothing  but  a  few  tiles 

from  a  falling  building,  I  guess. 

.     „,  I'd  like  to  see  the  inside  of  your  mind.     Do  you,  for 

Are  We      •     .  j     •     u       •       •  e  •  j.- 

Ossified^    mstance,  admire  heroism  m  any  lorm  or  is  your  cautious 

approval  shadowed  by  a  pious  wish  that  such  things  may 

never  be  necessary? 

You  are  what  I  call  a  coward;  at  least  in  talking  to  two  old 
gents  on  Sunday  I  told  them  they  were  saying  just  the  sort  of 
things  you  say.  "  So  you  think  that  half  the  men  in  America  are 
cowards! "  says  one  of  them.  Yes,  indeed  I  do,  more  than  half  of 
them — they  look  like  cowards.  When  they  talk  about  the  ad- 
ministration they  cower. 

The  thing  is  really  the  result  of  an  extreme  slowmindedness 
which  cannot  believe  in  danger,  or  doesn't  trust  death;  a  loss  of 
the  instinct  of  self-preservation;  like  the  foolishness  of  animals 
which  have  been  protected  till  they  have  no  wits  left,  and  let 
you  knock  them  over  with  a  stick.  They  clutch  and  shudder, 
but  don't  react. 

The  inability  of  the  American  mind  to  grasp  our  relation  to 
the  war  is,  no  doubt,  simply  a  great,  human,  inevitable  fact,  due 
to  our  remoteness  from  Europe  and  to  the  tuppenny  nature  of  our 
interests  (either  business  or  causes). 

We  all  seem  to  be  under  a  spell.  I've  always  felt  this  in 
America.  The  war  only  brings  it  out.  The  American  is  an 
ossified  man. 

Here  is  a  letter,  timely  in  invective  and  useful, 
possibly,  to  receive.  Its  immediate  recipient  is  glad 
to  share  it  with  all  the  American  family. 

What  ails  us,  brethren;  what  ails  us? 

Are  we  ossified  men.^ 

Are  we  like  the  Pribyloff  seals,  among  which  the 

350 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  351 

furhunters  walk  and  knock  the  selected  bulls  on  the 
head  with  a  club  and  carry  them  off? 

We  have  lived  for  two  years  and  a  half  with  the 
most  cruel  and  destructive  war  in  history,  a  war  that 
by  implication  threatened  and  imperilled  every 
nation  on  earth,  yet  we  are  scarcely  any  better  fitted 
to  protect  ourselves,  or  help  a  weaker  brother,  or 
strike  a  blow  for  righteousness,  than  we  were  the  day 
the  war  broke  out.  We  have  voted  some  money  for 
ships  that  will  be  several  years  in  building;  we  have 
tried  out  a  bad  plan  of  soldier-making  and  demon- 
strated its  insufficiency,  and  we  have  had  some 
camps  in  which  volunteer  students  have  had  short 
periods  of  training  in  the  duties  of  officers.  Besides 
that  we  have  manufactured  some  ammunition,  and 
that  is  about  all. 

We  are  not  all  fools  or  uninformed.  Thousands  of 
us  perfectly  appreciate  that  we  have  no  means  to 
make  effectual  resistance  to  any  first-class  power  that 
takes  a  notion  to  attack  us.  Our  little  army  would 
not  furnish  thread  to  sew  our  garment  of  defense. 
Our  navy  has  been  for  nearly  four  years  in  the  hands 
of  an  unsuitable  man  whom  our  President  is  too 
tender-hearted,  or  to  proud,  to  displace.  The  ships 
we  have  cannot  all  be  manned  because  men  w^ill  not 
come  forward  to  man  them.  Our  army  cannot  be  in- 
creased to  the  limit  set  by  law  because  the  necessary 
men  will  not  enlist.  Our  militia  regiments  are 
melting  away  after  their  service  on  the  border.  Bel- 
gium put  to  torture  shrieks  to  us  for  succour.  WTiat 
can  we  do.^  Germany  breaks  her  submarine  agree- 
ments with  us.     What  can  we  do? 

As  long  as  the  war  engrosses  Europe  we  are  safe 
enough,  though  impotent  except  to  hurt  our  friends ; 
but  now  peace  proposals  have  begun,  and  when  peace 
comes  and  the  armed  nations  have  leisure  again,  who 
is  going  to  protect  us? 


352  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

Are  we  ossified?  Are  we  like  those  subjects  of  the 
Roman  Empire  who  saw  the  empire  crumble  and  the 
legions  withdrawn,  and  hadn't  it  in  them  to  do  any- 
thing but  flutter  and  die? 


January  Ji,  1917, 

4FTER  all,  our  President  has  been  lucky. 
/•\         The   natural   fate  of  an  intervener   is   to 
•^  ^  catch  it  from  both  sides,  whereas  Mr.  Wilson, 
up  to  this  time  of  writing,  has  only  caught  it  from  one 
side. 

Mr.  Wilson  The  Germans  and  their  accomplices 
Asks  for  are  pleased  with  him.  They  want  the 
Peace  Terms  y^^j,  j-^^  gl^^p  ^j^^  seem  not  to  care  who 

knows  it.  That  is  the  most  impressive  fact  in  the 
situation.  The  Germans  can  fight  a  good  while 
longer — so  the  military  sharps  all  tell  us,  and  so  it 
looks — but  they  don't  want  to.  They  have  killed 
enough  folks,  invaded  enough  countries,  smashed 
small  nations  enough,  destroyed  and  defiled  villages, 
chateaux,  libraries,  and  cathedrals  enough,  and  im- 
pressed their  peculiar  racial  characteristics  sufficiently 
on  all  the  neighbours,  and  now,  though  they  have  not 
yet  finished  any  considerable  adversary,  they  don't 
mind  admitting  that  they  are  tired,  not  to  mention 
hungry,  and  would  like  to  quit.  They  are  much 
obliged  to  Mr.  Wilson  for  suggesting  it  is  time  for  all 
the  belligerents  to  say  what  they  are  fighting  for, 
and  they  are  willing,  it  seems,  to  disclose  the  price 
they  would  be  willing  to  pay,  or  accept,  for  peace. 

But  the  Allies,  if  they  also  are  obliged,  are  all  able 
to  conceal  their  feelings.  The  British  seem  to  feel  in- 
jured by  Mr.  Wilson's  action,  the  French  attribute  to 
him  the  kindest  motives  but  seem  not  to  think  he  has 
benefited  them. 

The  neutrals,  we  believe,  except  the  Americans, 
approve  his   action.     Holland  and   Switzerland  in 

S6n 


354  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

particular  have  had  all  the  war  they  want.  The 
Americans  incline  to  divide  into  two  groups,  one 
which  thinks  that  anything  Mr.  Wilson  does  is  right, 
and  the  other,  that  it  is  wrong.  In  this  case  the  latter 
group  seems  to  have  gained  in  size,  and  the  former 
one  to  have  shrunk. 

But  after  all,  it  may  be  that  the  office  to  which  Mr. 
Wilson  has  been  dedicated  by  Fate  is  to  be  the  light- 
ning-rod of  the  belligerents.  If  it  is  ordained  that 
their  fires  are  to  run  through  him  into  the  earth,  that 
is  a  destiny  that  Ajax  would  have  envied  him.  It 
may  be  that  after  the  Allies  have  heartily  cursed  out 
peace-at-this-time,  they  will  begin  to  feel  better 
about  it,  as  folks  sometimes  do  after  they  have 
thoroughly  eased  their  minds. 

At  any  rate,  this  is  Mr.  Wilson's  individual  enter- 
prise. If  it  adds  to  his  reputation,  that  will  be  pleas- 
ant; if  it  hurts  his  reputation,  we  can  bear  it.  Repu- 
tations are  no  great  matter  in  this  world  at  this  time. 
They  swell  like  bubbles  and  burst  like  them.  For  our 
part  we  think  rather  better  of  Mr.  Wilson  for  being 
willing  to  take  chances  with  his. 

And  there  were  good  reasons  why  he  should  make  a 
move.  The  Belgian  deportations  afford  one  reason; 
the  German  submarine  exploits  another.  The  sub- 
marines have  been  getting  out  of  hand  again.  What 
is  our  government  to  do  about  it?  That  is  a  question 
that  must  crowd  Mr.  Wilson  very  hard,  and  make 
any  means  that  would  settle  it  indirectly  look  par- 
ticularly good  to  him,  and  well  worth  trying.  The 
situation  is  not  one  that  leaves  him  a  choice  whether 
to  do  something  or  nothing.  He  has  got  to  do  some- 
thing and  the  only  question  is — what.'^  If  he  can  re- 
lieve the  situation  by  acting  as  a  lightning-rod  it 
may  save  him  from  very  complicated  efforts  to  dis- 
charge the  duties  of  international  policeman. 

When  Mr.  Wilson  had  to  meet  a  very  difficult  rail- 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  355 

road  situation  and  came  out  for  the  eight-hour  day, 
he  was  reviled  for  knuckling  down  to  the  Brother- 
hoods. 

The  Brotherhoods  were  pleased,  but  it  does  not 
look  now  as  though  he  had  knuckled  dowTi  so  much. 

Gentlemen,  Germans  and  others,  who  think  now 
that  he  has  knuckled  down  to  the  Germans,  may  not 
hold  to  that  view  in  the  long  run.  First  impressions 
of  Mr.  Wilson's  expedients  do  not  always  hold  good. 


January  11  ^  1917, 

THE  fact  about  the  Belgian  deportations  is  that 
Germany,  having  committed  a  great  crime,  is 
obliged  to  do  her  utmost  to  get  away  with  it. 
Belgium  hangs  about  her  neck  like  a  dead  fowl  tied 
to  a  chicken-killing  dog. 
Alas  for  She  cannot  get  rid  of  Belgium. 
Germamj!  Belgium  has  done  her  infinite  harm.  Bel- 
gium exposed,  so  that  no  one  could  mistake  it,  the 
atrocious  spirit  in  which  Germany  went  into  the  war. 
Her  lands  invaded  in  contempt  of  plighted  word,  her 
cities  occupied  and  under  ruinous  tribute,  her  villages 
and  factories  pillaged,  priceless  monuments  and 
treasures  in  some  of  her  cities  wantonly  destroyed, 
her  non-combatants  shot  in  rows,  her  children  mur- 
dered, her  women  worse  than  murdered — that  is  Bel- 
gium. German-swept,  as  all  the  world  has  seen  her, 
and  wept  and  suffered  at  the  sight. 

The  Germans  know  very  well  what  their  first 
dreadful  outbreak  into  Belgium  cost  them.  They 
know  the  hideous  handicap  their  Belgian  frightful- 
ness  put  on  them.  But  what  can  they  do?  There  is 
Belgium  on  their  hands.  It  is  ruin  to  stay  in;  it  is 
ruin  to  get  out.  They  have  tried  to  placate  the 
surviving  Belgians  and  to  scour  their  own  reputation 
among  the  neutral  nations  by  using  more  humane 
methods  of  occupation.  They  have  not  tried  to  ex- 
terminate their  captives  by  wholesale  as  their  allies 
tried  to  exterminate  the  Armenians.  They  have  not 
fed  them,  but  they  have  permitted  their  friends  to  do 
so.  But  there  the  Belgians  are,  six  or  seven  millions 
of  them,  suffering  what  they  must,  unmoved  by  Ger- 

856 


THE  DL^Y  OF  A  NATION  357 

man  blandishments,  fed  by  the  Relief  Commission 
and  waiting  for  deliverance ! 

This  recent  deportation  of  the  men  by  the  hundred 
thousand  is  a  sign  of  Germany's  extremity.  She  has 
lost  four  million  men,  and  the  rest  of  her  available 
man-power  is  very  busy  staving  off  destruction.  She 
needs  workmen.  There  are  the  Belgians  in  her 
power,  and  she  feels  that  she  must  use  them.  Very 
likely  she  feels  also  that  the  more  Belgians  there  are  in 
Germany  and  the  fewer  in  Belgium  the  safer  it  will  be 
for  her  when  the  end  comes.  So  she  is  transferring 
her  hostages  to  a  safer  pen,  and  at  the  same  time  in- 
creasing her  productive  power.  And  of  course  in 
doing  it  she  professes  to  be  governed  by  benevolence 
and  the  desire  to  do  better  by  her  captives  than  is  pos- 
sible while  they  stay  at  home.  But  no  one  is  de- 
ceived by  that.  The  chain  that  joins  the  slave  to  his 
master  always  binds  both.  Belgium  has  got  Ger- 
many just  as  tight  as  Germany  has  got  Belgium. 
Germany  has  got  to  a  point  where  she  needs  to  use  to 
the  uttermost  all  she  has.  Since  she  has  got  Belgium 
she  must  use  the  Belgians,  no  matter  how  much 
worse  it  makes  her  case  appear  before  the  world 
or  how  much  it  revives  the  horror  of  her  first  as- 
sault. 

Let  us  be  sorry  for  Germany,  chained  to  her  crime 
and  bound  to  drain  its  cup  of  bitter  consequences. 
Belgium  in  her  power  is  her  greatest  liability,  a  bucket 
in  which  the  pitch  for  her  defilement  is  perpetually 
renewed.  Belgium  ever  forces  her  to  act,  and  leaves 
her  choice  of  two  alternatives,  both  ruinous.  "From 
the  moment  when  Prussian  cannon  hurled  death  at  a 
peaceable  and  inoffensive  little  country,  I  realized," 
said  LloydlGeorge,  "  that  a  challenge  had  been  sent  to 
civilization  to  decide  an  issue  upon  the  settlement  of 
which  will  depend  the  fate  of  men  in  this  world  for 
generations." 


S58  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

That  was  it.  When  Germany  burst  into  Belgium 
she  defied  civilization. 

But  civilization  took  the  challenge  up.  Alas  for 
Germany ! 


Januafy  11, 1917. 

PEACE  efforts  have  not  yet  got  anywhere.  The 
German  suggestion  that  Germany  has  won  a 
war  that  was  forced  on  her  and  is  ready  now  to 
stop  fighting  has  been  coldly  received  by  the  Allies. 
They  call  it  "a  sham  proposal,  lacking  all  substance 
The  Allies  and  precision,"  and  not  so  much  an  offer 
Reply  of  peace  as  a  war  manoeuvre.  A  mere  sug- 
gestion without  a  statement  of  terms  to  open  nego- 
tiations is  not,  they  say,  an  offer  of  peace. 

In  their  joint  reply  they  set  Germany  right  about 
how  the  war  began,  remind  her  of  many  painful  things 
that  have  since  happened,  of  which  she  makes  no 
mention,  charge  that  her  overtures  are  a  calculated 
attempt  to  bring  the  war  to  end  to  German  advant- 
age, and  "refuse  to  consider  a  proposal  that  is  empty 
and  insincere."  "Penalties,  reparation,  and  guaran- 
tees "  are  what  the  situation  calls  for  as  the  Allies  see 
it,  and  they  devote  the  last  quarter  of  their  reply  to 
posting  Germany  on  the  bill-board  of  the  nations  as 
the  treacherous  despoiler  of  Belgium,  who,  "while 
proclaiming  peace  and  humanity  to  the  world,  is  de- 
porting Belgian  citizens  by  thousands,  and  reducing 
them  to  slavery." 

It  seems  a  very  nice  reply  and  correct  in  all  its  par- 
ticulars. It  is  the  answer  of  the  French  seventy-five 
to  the  German  seventy-seven — more  of  the  same  sort 
of  exchange  that  is  now  well  on  in  its  third  year  of 
transaction.  It  is  such  an  answer  as  was  to  be  ex- 
pected, and  brings  very  little  help  to  peace  prospects. 
Of  course  the  Allies  are  not  going  to  negotiate  with  a 
German  statement  of  the  causes  and  status  of  the  war 

859 


360  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

as  the  basis  of  negotiation.  Of  course  they  are  not 
going  to  have  an  armistice;  nor  a  conference  unless 
they  have  assurance  beforehand  that  the  conference 
will  be  worth  while  and  its  outcome  probably  satis- 
factory. 

What  outcome  would  be  satisfactory  to  the  Allies  is 
expected  to  be  disclosed  in  the  next  chapter  of  this  in- 
teresting peace  serial,  to  wit:  the  reply  to  Mr.  Wil- 
son's circular  letter. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  there  would  hardly  have 
been  a  "To  be  continued"  at  the  end  of  the  first  in- 
stallment of  the  peace  serial  unless  our  President  had 
taken  his  pen  in  hand.  People  who  are  interested  in 
the  next  chapter  will  please  give  him  credit  for  it; 
people  who  are  bored  by  it  can  blame  him.  For  our 
part,  we  are  glad  to  have  the  story  go  on.  It  is  a 
little  change  from  the  war  narrative  that  we  have 
had  so  long,  and  with  which  every  one,  belligerents 
especially,  must  be  sated.  It  is  not  wrong  of  us  to 
hope  that  there  will  be  peace  in  Europe  before  every- 
body there  who  is  worth  killing  is  dead,  nor  even 
wrong  to  hope  that  our  President  may  be  an  instru- 
ment of  assistance  to  that  end. 

A  great  many  people  are  in  a  state  of  chronic  con- 
tempt for  Mr.  Wilson  and  displeasure  with  all  his 
works,  and  when  he  practises  to  put  a  little  salt  on 
the  dove's  tail,  they  can't  stand  it  at  all.  All  they  see 
in  his  efforts  is  the  attempt  of  an  objectionable  char- 
acter to  increase  his  own  reputation  by  using  the 
power  of  the  United  States  to  pull  off  a  bad  peace  un- 
timely. They  can't  bear  to  have  him  get  credit  for 
anything;  they  think  he  has  got  already  far  more  than 
he  deserves,  and  the  idea  of  his  getting  any  more  is 
gall  and  worm  wood  to  them. 

It  is  doubtful  if  these  brethren  get  it  right.  Heaven 
knows  what  goes  on  inside  of  Mr.  Wilson's  head,  but 
it  is  perfectly  easy  to  account  for  all  his  conduct  by 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  361 

other  motives  than  self-seeking.  What  would  the 
good  man  want  of  any  more  fame?  He  has  lived  a 
life  stuffed  with  glories.  He  was  pitcher  on  the 
Princeton  nine,  an  instructor  at  Bryn  Mawr,  man- 
ager and  coach  of  the  Wesleyan  football  team.  Presi- 
dent of  Princeton,  Governor  of  New  Jersey,  and  is 
now  President  of  the  United  States,  with  a  second 
term  in  his  pocket  that  he  has  not  yet  even  nibbled. 
Why  should  he  want  the  Nobel  prize  .^^  Why  should 
he  be  chasing  renown.'^  He  hasn't  cellar-room  now 
for  the  glory  he  has  salted  down. 

We  don't  believe  that  Mr.  Wilson  is  taking  chances 
and  playing  busybody  in  order  to  make  a  name  for 
himself.  He  looks  much  more  like  a  man  in  a  great 
place  in  a  great  world  crisis,  who  is  simply  doing  his 
best  to  make  good.  Perhaps  he  will,  perhaps  he 
won't;  perhaps  he  will  lighten  the  woes  of  the  world, 
perhaps  he  will  prolong  them.  But  he  is  the  leader 
and  official  representative  of  American  democracy. 
If  he  can  help  the  world  he  must  do  it,  and  if  he  can't 
it  is  better  that  it  should  not  be  for  lack  of  trying. 
One  would  rather  have  him  blmider  than  not  try,  for 
by  adventure  and  mistake  one  may  get  somewhere, 
but  not  by  being  afraid  to  act. 

No  doubt  these  overtures  and  statements  and  talk 
and  back-talk  are  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  the  war, 
but  the  space  between  may  be  anything  you  will,  and 
may  last  according  to  taste  and  opinion.  The  great 
disseminators  of  prognostication  in  these  days  are  the 
gentlemen  who  write  the  headlines  in  the  newspapers, 
but  about  peace  and  when  it  is  coming  they  know  no 
more  than  the  bankers,  the  tipsters,  the  diplomats,  or 
the  General  Staffs.  If  any  one  knew  just  how  much 
there  was  to  eat  in  Germany  it  would  help  in  calcu- 
lations, but  nothing  more  than  a  probability  could  be 
computed  even  from  that.  We  think  Germany  may 
be  starved  out,  and  we  know  the  xAllies  won't:  we 


362  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

know  that  time  will  tell,  but  not  how  much  time,  nor 
who  will  be  left  to  listen.  The  venerable  prophecy  of 
Mayence,  widely  circulated  two  years  ago,  says: 
*' William  the  Second  shall  be  the  last  King  of  Prussia 
and  shall  have  no  other  successors,  save  a  King  of 
Poland,  a  King  of  Hanover,  and  a  King  of  Saxony." 
The  excellent  prophecy  of  the  Antichrist  says: 
"Antichrist  will  sue  for  peace  many  times,  but  the 
three  animals  (the  cock,  the  leopard,  and  the  white 
eagle)  will  not  be  permitted  to  cease  fighting  so  long 
as  Antichrist  has  soldiers."  Both  these  prophecies 
wind  up  the  great  war  with  a  terrific  final  set-to  in 
Westphalia.  They  cannot  be  considered  reliable  tips 
in  this  sceptical  age,  but  they  are  as  good  as  most  of 
those  that  Wall  Street  uses,  and  they  have  lasted 
much  better,  and  they  serve  a  useful  purpose  in  get- 
ting one's  mind  off  the  newspapers  and  away  from  the 
delusion  that  the  net  residue  of  many  columns  of  con- 
flicting statements  is  information. 

Nobody  knows  how  long  the  war  will  take  to  end, 
nor  what  will  be  the  details  of  its  ending,  but  most  of 
us  believe  now  that  Germany  cannot  win,  and  that 
the  only  thing  left  for  her  to  fight  for  is  favourable 
terms. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  talk  about  the  alienation  of 
American  sympathy  from  the  Allies,  and  some  of  our 
brethren  in  Europe,  especially  in  England,  seem  wor- 
ried about  it.  The  Tribune  asserts  that  the  mass  of 
American  opinion  still  holds  to  the  idea  that  the 
evacuation  of  Belgium  and  France  is  essential  to  a 
just  peace,  but  that  it  does  not  and  will  not  go  beyond 
that,  nor  "accept  the  British  view  that  the  war  is  a 
war  for  civilization  and  that  the  first  essential  to 
peace  is  the  crushing  defeat  of  Germany." 

There  may  be  some  truth  in  that.  Our  people 
know  Belgium  and  France,  but  when  it  comes  to  the 
conflict  of  British,  German,  and  Russian  interests  in 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  363 

the  Balkans  and  Asia,  they  are  beyond  thfe  range  of 
their  information,  and  are  slow  to  take  sides.  Their 
attitude,  then,  as  the  Tribune  sees  it,  amounts  to  this : 
that  in  concerns  that  they  understand  they  are  pro- 
Ally  as  much  as  ever,  and  in  concerns  that  they  can- 
not fathom  they  are  neutral. 

The  war  has  changed,  and  Americans  need  to  re- 
study  it.  That  need  may  justify  the  President  in 
asking  for  more  light  from  the  belligerents  on  their 
intentions.  As  much  as  ever  the  Americans  detest 
the  Prussian  theory  and  method  in  human  affairs.  In 
Belgium  they  see  it  and  hate  it,  and  they  will  hate  it 
elsewhere  if  it  is  revealed  to  them. 


January  18, 1917. 

THE  most  impressive  detail  of  the  world-view 
just  now  is  the  strength  of  Great  Britain. 
She  has  had  time  to  let  out  all  of  her  tucks, 
and  she  has  let  them  out  until,  nowadays,  she  makes 
B  itish  ^  truly  wonderful  showing. 

Strength  For  two  years  we  have  talked  about 

and  German   France,  and  held  up  our  hands  to  won- 
^^^^  der.      There   was   plenty   to   wonder   at, 

and  there  is  still.  We  haven't  wondered  so  much 
at  England,  because  the  readiness  and  efficiency  of  her 
navy  were  taken  for  granted  and  excited  no  surprise, 
and  her  ready-made  army  was  killed  in  the  crush  in 
the  opening  exercises  of  the  war.  That  army  has 
not  yet  got  credit  for  all  it  did,  but  no  matter.  For 
some  time  after  it  was  gone  there  was  not  much  to  ad- 
mire England  for.  Her  ships  were  on  their  job  with- 
out much  noise,  but  it  was  France  and  Frenchmen 
that  were  standing  off  the  Germans.  Great  Britain 
was  beating  the  drum  from  London  to  Melbourne, 
making  soldiers  everywhere,  making  mistakes  almost 
everywhere.  Her  calculations  had  missed  out.  She 
had  thought  that  her  navy  made  her  safe  and  would 
constitute  a  sufficient  contribution  to  any  war  game 
she  might  enter.  She  found  out  overnight  that  it  was 
not  a  sufficient  contribution  to  this  game  with  Ger- 
many, and  that  besides  ships  and  guns  and  money  she 
mu^t  furnish  men  by  millions  to  fight  on  land.  So  she 
went  about  to  make  soldiers  out  of  the  raw  material, 
with  Kitchener  to  show  her  hoAV. 

That  was  truly  a  desperate  undertaking — to  make 
offhand  a  huge  army  to  fight  the  immense  levies  of 

364 


THE  DIAEY  OF  A  NATION  365 

Germany  already  trained,  seasoned,  and  equipped! 
Of  course  without  France,  the  wonderful  stop-gap,  it 
couldn't  have  been  done.  But  as  things  were,  it  was 
done.  It  is  two  years  and  a  half  since  that  work 
began,  and  for  two  years  England  has  been  pouring 
out  fighting  men.  She  has  sent  out  enough  to  have 
had  nearly  two  million  casualties;  she  is  credited  now 
with  two  million  soldiers  in  France,  and  with  three 
million  more  at  home  or  elsewhere,  and  more  mak- 
ing. And  all  the  while  she  has  been  making  munitions 
in  enormous  and  increasing  quantities,  building  new 
ships  all  the  time,  and  raising  and  distributing  bil- 
lion after  billion  of  pounds  sterling  to  be  put  where 
they  would  do  the  most  good. 

And  she  keeps  up  trade,  too,  and  being  supplied 
with  naval  shells  beyond  her  needs,  allows  one  of  her 
factories  to  put  in  a  low  bid  to  furnish  some  for  our 
navy. 

Clearly,  this  breed  of  men  that  planted  the  United 
States  has  not  yet  gone  to  seed. 

The  Pan-Germans  computed  that  it  had,  but  that 
was  one  of  the  German  mistakes — perhaps  the  great- 
est of  them  all.  The  war  in  its  present  phase  is  largely 
between  Germany  and  Great  Britain.  But  it  is  to 
the  advantage  of  civilization  that  it  is  not  wholly  so. 
Germany  has  swallowed  her  allies.  If  she  should 
win,  her  will  would  dominate  them  all.  But  England 
has  not  swallowed  her  allies,  and  cannot,  nor  would  if 
she  could,  and  her  will  will  not  dominate  them.  She 
is  fighting  for  her  own  hand,  of  course,  but  it  is  not 
a  mailed  fist. 


January  £5, 1917. 

SINCE  the  war  began  we  Americans  have  had 
all  the  emotions  possible.  We  had  them  over 
Belgium,  over  Rheims  cathedral  and  Louvain, 
over  the  Lusitania,  and  all  the  other  submarine 
murders,  over  Edith  Cavell  and  Captain  Fryatt, 
American  over  poison  gas  and  Zeppelin  raids,  over 
Apathy  crimes  without  number  against  women, 
children,  wounded  men  and  prisoners;  over  Poland, 
Servia,  and  Armenia.  About  all  these  things  we  have 
had  all  the  feelings  possible,  and  expressed  them  as  we 
could,  mainly  in  words.  Individual  Americans  who 
were  free  to  act  on  their  war  impulses,  and  have  had 
money  or  time  to  give,  have  given  both  freely.  But 
the  great  mass  of  our  people  have  been  held  to  their 
necessary  wage  earning,  and  have  kept  busy  at  it. 
Out  of  our  feelings  as  a  nation  not  only  has  nothing 
more  important  than  inaction  come,  but  even  our 
national  capacity  for  indignation  seems  to  have  been 
exhausted.  We  have  grown  torpid,  and  look  on, 
nowadays,  dull-eyed  at  Europe,  and  sigh  at  the  cost 
of  eggs,  and  read  the  stock  market. 

If  Gabriel  should  sound  his  trumpet  it  is  hard  to 
say  how  it  would  affect  us.  One  can  imagine  an 
astonished  archangel  muttering  to  himself,  "Is  it  im- 
possible to  start  anything  in  that  country  .f^"  Some- 
body once  described  Maine  as  so  splintered  up  into 
sects  and  burnt  over  by  peculiar  beliefs  that  religion 
was  as  good  as  dead  in  it.  So  it  is,  a  good  deal,  with 
us  as  a  nation  about  the  war.  We  are  a  graveyard  of 
dead  fervours,  torpid  even  about  ourselves.  If  in- 
vited by  invaders  to  stand  up  against  a  w^all  and  be 

366 


THE  DIAEY  OF  A  NATION  367 

shot,  a  good  many  of  us  might  line  up  ahnost  with  a 
sense  of  relief.  It  would  be  something  at  last  that  we 
could  do. 

Even  our  ardour  for  mihtary  preparation  is  touched 
with  apathy.  We  think  we  ought  to  arm  and  exer- 
cise for  self-defense,  but  we  are  going  about  it  with 
long  rest-intervals,  and  leisurely  discussion,  and  all 
the  deliberation  of  a  ship  provisioning  for  a  voyage 
around  the  world,  hoping  meanwhile  that  in  the  end 
it  won't  be  necessary  to  start. 

We  are  a  fire  that  is  going  out,  leaving  nearly  all  the 
fuel  unbumed.  It  is  a  very  curious  condition.  "All 
Wilson's  fault,"  every  second  man  will  tell  you.  "If 
Roosevelt  had  been  President  the  war  would  have 
been  over  months  ago." 

As  to  that,  no  one  can  tell,  nor  whether  we  should 
be  better  off  ablaze  than  as  we  are.  But  this  one 
sees,  that  the  majority  of  our  people  do  not  regret  to 
be  alive,  unwounded  and  not  in  the  war,  nor  even 
repine  because  they  are  not  more  excited  and  more  of 
a  factor  in  what  is  going  on.  They  are  not  comfort- 
able, but  at  least  they  are  not  dead. 

Whether  you  like  it  or  not,  this  is  an  impressive 
fact.  If  it  was  the  Day  of  Judgment,  and  the  mass  of 
the  Americans  declined  to  attend  the  exercises,  it 
would  seem  to  be  an  affront  to  a  great  historical 
occasion.  So  American  apathy  seems  an  affront  to 
war. 

But  what  is  there,  really,  to  say.^^  Most  of  us  busy 
people  would  prefer  not  to  attend  the  Day  of  Judg- 
ment, and  would  not,  unless  subpoenaed.  We  should 
be  satisfied  to  read  about  it  after  dinner  in  the  papers, 
and  note  what  prominent  people  got.  Most  of  us  live 
in  a  state  of  servitude,  linked  to  our  employments 
and  unable  to  break  away  from  them  unless  there  is 
a  great  convulsion  that  sets  all  the  servitors  free. 
Most  of  us  could  not  get  into  the  war  unless  our  gov- 


368  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

ernraent  put  the  country  in.  It  didn't,  and  we 
stayed  out.  In  so  far  as  we  are  apathetic  about  it, 
that  is  a  condition  produced  by  repeated  overdoses  of 
sensation  combined  with  inactivity.  We  can't  help 
it.     We  can  only  apologize. 

Our  friends  abroad  have  not  been  carrymg  on  the 
war  for  our  edification,  and  they  won't  stop  it  be- 
cause we  are  inattentive.  But  they  won't  like  our 
attitude.  We  are  the  most  important  section  of  their 
audience,  and  to  have  so  many  of  us  looking  at  our 
watches  may  seem  to  them  to  reflect  on  their  per- 
formance. 

Not  at  all;  not  at  all!  No  offence,  gentlemen! 
What  you  see  in  us  is  just  human  nature.  We  can't 
help  it.  The  performance  is  unparalleled,  but  we 
confess  we  are  almost  as  anxious  to  get  it  over  as  you 
are.  We  can't  get  into  it,  and  you  can't  get  out  of  it. 
You  have  to  fight,  and  we  have  to  look  on.  We  don't 
like  our  end  of  it  much  better  than  you  like  yours. 
For  heaven's  sake  don't  think  of  us  as  happy  in 
neutrality.  We  are  not  happy.  We  are  in  the  fry- 
ing-pan, and  the  pains  of  that  position  make  us  at 
times  look  enviously  at  you  who  are  in  the  fire. 

We  may  yet  be  rekindled. 

It  is  not  likely,  but  it  is  conceivable,  and,  at  least, 
we  are  dry  fuel,  charred  in  places  already,  and  the 
easier,  for  that,  to  start. 


January  ^5,  1917. 

THE  President's  note  inviting  the  belligerents 
to  define  their  aims  was  popular  in  Germany 
and  with  the  Hearst  papers  and  other  pro- 
German  papers  here.  It  was  respectfully  received 
by  the  pro-Ally  papers  here  that  support  the  ad- 
Q  ^^^^  ministration,  and  denounced  as  meddlesome 
Avmds  by  most  of  those  in  the  opposition.  But 
A  Show-  Germany,  though  welcoming  the  President's 
down  invitation,  has  not  accepted  it.  Neither 
are  Germany,  nor  pro-Germans  here,  at  all  pleased 
with  the  Allies'  reply.  "We  are  annoyed,"  says 
Mr.  Hearst's  American,  "that  such  childish  stuff 
should  have  found  a  place  in  a  document  that 
must  be  historical  and  that  purports  to  deal  with 
the  real  issues  of  this  tremendous  world  war."  And 
the  Kaiser  feels  no  better  about  it.  "Our  enemies 
have  dropped  the  mask,"  he  says,  "and  admitted 
their  lust  for  conquest." 

All  the  same,  the  Kaiser,  as  yet,  avoids  a  show- 
down. The  Allies  have  been  sufficiently  explicit  in 
declaring  their  intentions,  but  the  Kaiser  sticks  to 
shopworn  generalities  which  have  lost  even  their 
glitter.  "  Our  glorious  victories  and  iron  strength  of 
will,"  our  "burning  indignation  and  holy  wrath," 
"  this  glorious  spirit  of  freedom  in  our  brave  people's 
hearts,"  will  "give  us  full  victory,"  he  says,  "over 
all  the  enemy's  rage  for  destruction." 

So  he  whistles  to  keep  courage  up,  but  does  not  say 
what  he  wants.  Perhaps  he  is  grateful  to  Mr.  Wilson 
for  giving  the  Allies  a  chance  to  disclose  the  enormity 
of  their  desires,  but  it  does  not  sound  so.     But  Lon- 

369 


370  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

don,  having  read  the  Allies'  reply  with  satisfaction, 
seems  quite  pleased  with  Mr.  Wilson  for  calling  it  out. 
The  New  York  Times^  correspondent  declared  (Jan- 
uary 14th)  that  whereas  three  weeks  earlier  Mr.  Wil- 
son "  was  anathema  throughout  allied  Europe,  to-day 
he  is  stronger  and  America  is  stronger  in  England  and 
France  than  perhaps  at  any  time  since  the  sinking  of 
the  Lusitania.'^ 

It  looks  so;  and  all  because  the  Allies  made  so 
candid  and  so  polite  an  answer  to  inquiries.  Post- 
poning particulars  of  compensations  and  indemnities 
until  "the  hour  of  negotiations,"  they  want  the 
restoration  of  Belgium,  Servia,  and  Montenegro,  with 
indemnities;  the  evacuation  of  invaded  territories  of 
France,  Russia,  and  Rumania,  with  just  reparation; 
the  reorganization  of  Europe  guaranteed  by  a  stable 
settlement  framed  to  suit  the  people  concerned  and 
guaranteed  against  unjust  attacks;  the  restoration  of 
provinces  wrested  in  the  past  from  the  Allies;  libera- 
tion of  Italians,  Slavs,  and  Rumanians  from  foreign 
d(  mination;  relief  of  populations  subject  to  Turkey 
and  the  expulsion  of  the  Turkish  empire  from  Europe. 

Besides  these  simple  needs,  a  new  Poland  to  be 
erected  from  designs  by  the  Czar,  and  the  liberation 
of  Europe  from  "  the  brutal  covetousness  of  Prussian 
militarism,"  but  by  no  means  the  extermination  or 
political  disappearance  of  the  German  peoples. 

Certainly  they  could  not  well  have  asked  for  less, 
and  what  Berlin  and  Mr.  Hearst  and  other  sanguine 
souls  expected  them  to  say  is  a  good  deal  of  a  mys- 
tery. Now  it  is  for  Berlin  to  define  hopes  and  run 
boundaries  around  aspirations,  and  then,  possibly,  we 
shall  get  forward  a  little  towards  guessing  how  near 
the  earth  comes  to  being  large  enough  to  satisfy  its 
claimants,  and  how  manv  more  of  its  inhabitants 
must  perish  before  its  territorial  insufficiency  is 
cured. 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  371 

Meanwhile,  nobod^^  mentions  Mesopotamia  or 
posts  a  claim  to  Bagdad,  the  Allies  being  too  polite 
as  yet  to  say  the  Germans  can't  have  them,  and  the 
Kaiser  too  modest  as  yet  to  point  out  that  "Gott," 
who  knows  a  pious  man  when  He  sees  him,  has 
awarded  them  to  him. 

Neither  does  any  one  expound  with  much  con- 
fidence the  present  state  of  Russia,  where,  behind  the 
war,  revolution  and  reaction  continue  active  in  the 
ring,  and  round  follows  round  without  a  visible 
decision. 

As  for  our  own  concerns  (so  far  as  they  are  de- 
tachable from  the  affairs  of  Europe) ,  the  observer  of 
the  big  puddle  must  sympathize  with  a  looker-on  at 
one  of  the  local  ones,  who  writes:  "In  regard  to 
questions  that  have  arisen  ...  I  merely  sit 
still  and  watch  with  interest  the  vagaries  of  the  human 
mind,  and  derive  experience,  if  not  solace  and  en- 
lightenment, therefrom." 

So  it  is  when  we  regard  the  war;  so  it  is  when  we 
think  of  our  own  matters,  as  to  which  there  is  always 
a  lot  to  do  and  a  lot  being  done,  but  which  constantly 
furnish  the  regardful  mind  with  astonishments. 


February  1, 1917. 

ZIFE^S  good  friend  Jonas  Picket  writes  from 
Boston   to  complain   that   Boston   does  not 
understand  Wilson.     He   does   not  glory   in 
that  fact.     He  grieves  at  it.     "What  is  the  matter 
Establishment  with    the    man?"    he    says.      "He   irri- 
vs.^  tates  me  as  a  man  does  a  boy  when  he 

Dissent  j^^g  j^qj-  niake  the  boy  understand  him." 

The  world  that  I  live  in  nowadays  is  a  narrow  one,  and  has  its 
faults,  but  it  has  its  virtues,  too.  Almost  nobody  in  it  likes 
Wilson.  There  is  plenty  of  opposition  to  him  that  springs  from 
small  motives,  but  there  is  also  much  of  another  kind.  We  do 
not  understand  him,  and  we  resent  it,  for  we  think  well  enough 
of  ourselves  to  believe  that  we  are  not  to  blame  for  it.  We  bring 
some  thoughtfulness,  some  reading  and  the  political  capacity  of 
our  kind  to  a  consideration  of  the  great  tasks  he  is  engaged  in, 
and  some  charity,  too,  and  a  great  deal  of  hot  air,  and  then — 
then  he  gets  our  goats,  and  we  don't  like  it. 

Certainly  that  is  a  hard  case.  It  deserves  sym- 
pathy, and  will  get  it  abundantly  up  and  down  the 
eastern  edge  of  the  United  States,  and  appreciably 
in  the  other  parts  of  the  country  and,  indeed,  of  the 
world.  For  everywhere  in  the  world  people  who 
think  of  the  war  and  the  future  think  just  now  of 
President  Wilson,  and  try  to  understand  what  man- 
ner of  man  he  is  and  what  he  is  up  to.  And  thousands 
of  such  persons  are  in  just  about  the  state  of  mind 
that  our  Boston  correspondent  describes.  They 
can't  understand  him,  and  are  mad  about  it. 

For  what,  in  the  pith  of  it,  is  this  good  Boston 
bro tiler's  complaint.'^  What  is  it  but  the  sore 
grievance  of  Establishment  against  Dissent?      The 

372 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  S73 

old  Beacon  Street  Boston  that  our  good  friend  writes 
out  of  is  the  best  stronghold  of  political  and  social 
Establishment  that  our  country  has  left;  better  even 
than  Philadelphia,  because  not  so  big,  and  set  off  a 
little  farther  to  one  side.  This  old  Boston  has  char- 
acter. It  has  manners,  traditions,  fidelities.  In  any 
crisis  of  affairs,  social,  political,  or  sportmg,  if  you 
don't  know  what  is  right  you  can  find  out  by  applying 
on  Beacon  Street,  a  few  doors  from  Joy.  The  old 
Boston  knows  what  is  right  for  all  occasions,  can  cite 
precedents  for  every  case,  and,  moreover,  intends  that 
right  shall  be  done. 

And  that  is  where  this  bitterness  toward  Doctor  Wil- 
son comes  in.  The  old  Boston  is  urgent  for  the  right, 
as  far  as  it  can  see  it.  It  will  make  it  prevail,  or  know 
why  not,  and  not  count  cost  nor  grudge  sweat  or 
blood  in  the  effort.  There  is  nothing  m  the  country 
that  is  handier  to  have  with  you  when  you  start  out 
with  a  billy  to  beat  up  the  devil  than  recruits  from 
Boston. 

And  here  is  a  great  world  crisis,  in  which  the  devil 
is  being  beaten  up  quite  unusually,  and  Old  Boston 
can't  get  in  to  do  anything  adequate  because  Mr. 
Wilson  is  President  and  won't  start  anything.  He 
does  not  see  things  as  Establishment  sees  them.  He 
has  brains;  that  is  admitted:  but  they  are  chapel- 
going  brains.  Doctor  Wilson,  like  Lloyd  George,  is 
a  political  Dissenter.  He  has  got  the  goat  of  the 
Establishment,  and  of  course  the  Establishment  is 
perplexed  and  sore. 

Establishments  never  like  Dissenters.  The  Angli- 
can Establishment  hated  Cromwell  and  was  not 
pleased  even  with  Wesley.  Nevertheless,  in  the 
progress  of  human  affairs  Establishment  is  bound  at 
times  to  go  afield  and  Dissent  to  have  its  turn  at  the 
bat.  Doctor  Wilson  is  not  a  puritan  as  Cromwell  was, 
but  he  derives  out  of  that  school  of  rehgious  dissent 


374  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

whicli  Cromwell  stood  for,  and  which  gave  back- 
bone to  most  of  the  American  colonies.  A  minister's 
son  and  himself  a  ministerial  character,  his  actuating 
motive  is  probably  to  do  his  share  to  Christianize  the 
world.  But  Christianity  made  the  common  man 
important,  and  our  modern  democracy  has  grown  out 
of  it.  The  use  of  Establishments  is  to  control  and 
guide  the  common  man,  but  the  intention  of  such  a 
democracy  as  Mr.  Wilson  stands  for  is  to  qualify 
and  help  the  common  man  to  control  the  Establish- 
ments. So  between  Establishments — whether  they 
are  the  old  Republican  party,  or  the  old  traditional 
Boston,  or  the  corporations,  or  the  banks,  or  the  la- 
bour unions — and  Mr.  Wilson's  democracy  there  are 
bound  to  be  clashes  and  misunderstandings. 

It  has  been  said,  and  by  one  of  Mr.  Wilson's  most 
impassioned  critics,  "The  words  of  Christ  dissolve  the 
whole  fabric  of  society."  But  the  fabric  of  society  \s> 
largely  Establishment,  and  the  words  of  Christ  are  the 
very  basis  of  modern  democracy.  These  are  mighty 
hard  times  for  the  fabric  of  society.  The  war 
threatens  to  dissolve  it  if  it  keeps  on,  and  the  alterna- 
tive seems  to  be  to  Christianize  it.  Mr.  Wilson,  with 
his  notions  of  democracy,  seems  to  be  the  leading 
champion  of  the  alternative.  Seeing  the  fabric  of 
society  endangered  by  the  war,  he  seems  to  practise 
to  medicate  it  by  an  infusion  of  Christianized  democ- 
racy. 

Some  people  see  this  aim  in  him,  and  some  don't. 
To  some  Wilson  looks  Christian;  to  others,  a  great 
many,  he  looks  merely  yellow;  others,  another  large 
company,  cannot  make  up  their  minds  which  he  is. 
Establishment  instinctively  looks  upon  him  with  sus- 
picion .  Doctor  Manning  speaking  for  Trinity  Church, 
Mr.  Root  for  the  Old  Order  and  the  Old  Guard,  Colonel 
Roosevelt  for  "My  Poh'cies,"  Jonas  Picket  for  Old 
Boston,  all  disclose  the  same  distrust,  indignant  and 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  375 

protestf ul.  You  get  it  in  its  most  amusing  form  in  the 
Wall  Street  Journal,  which  stumbles  on  from  sputter  to 
sputter,  denouncing  the  inexorable  democrat. 

Most  of  these  good  people  are  heartily  in  favour  of 
Christianizing  the  world.  Doctor  Manning  is,  if  you 
let  the  Church  do  it;  Col.  Roosevelt  is,  if  you  use 
"My  Policies."  It  is  not  at  all  a  new  idea.  When 
the  world  is  in  a  bad  pickle  it  is  apt  to  turn  to  it. 
Constantine  adopted  it;  Charlemagne  encouraged  it; 
the  Crusaders  were  crazy  about  it;  it  was  the  great 
inspiration  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Spain  professed  it  as 
her  motive  in  seeking  to  dommate  the  world,  and 
accomplished  something  in  the  Western  Hemisphere, 
lamentable  as  her  errors  were.  Napoleon's  vision 
did  not  include  it,  but  he  did  his  share  to  change 
kings  from  an  institution  to  an  incident,  and  to  ad- 
vance democracy,  and  when  he  fell  the  Holy  Alliance 
came  back  to  the  old  idea  with  renewed  ardour,  and 
the  resuscitated  emperors  and  kings  issued  an  address 
to  mankind  that  was  fairly  saturated  with  Christian 
profession  and  ^anctification.  The  emperors  and 
kings  proposed  to  Christianize  the  world  from  the  top 
down,  and  make  it  what  it  should  be.  But  England 
would  not  sign  the  notice,  and  presently,  with  Can- 
ning's connivance,  the  United  States  put  out  the 
Monroe  Doctrme  to  effect  that  this  hemisphere  must 
not  be  redeemed  by  force  on  the  European  plan. 

Now  again  out  of  the  great  misery  of  the  world  war 
has  come  a  deep  and  general  sense  of  the  need  of  a 
plan  to  make  the  nations  live  brotherly  together. 
All  the  belligerents  have  spoken,  and  while  they  do 
not  express  themselves  in  terms  so  sanctified  as  those 
of  the  Holy  Alliance,  they  all  virtually  call  for  the 
Golden  Rule  as  the  basis  of  the  rearrangement  of 
Europe.  They  all  profess  to  want  such  an  issue  of  the 
war  as  shall  make  the  little  nations  safe  and  happy 
alongside  of  the  big  ones,  and  the  big  ones  safe 


376  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

and  happy  alongside  of  one  another.  The  lion  and 
the  lamb  are  to  snuggle  up  to  one  another,  and  the 
linnet  to  roost  secure  between  the  eagles.  Our  great 
slogan — Give  the  people  what  they  want! — seems  to 
have  swelled  every  belligerent  heart,  but  still  they 
keep  on  fighting,  because  they  dare  not  trust  each 
other's  professions,  because  governments  by  will  of 
people  dare  not  trust  governments  by  will  of  kings. 

Comes  in  at  this  point  opportunely  in  the  late  pa- 
pers of  this  day  of  writing  Mr.  Wilson  to  speak  for 
himself  in  an  address  to  the  Senate  and  to  all  the 
nations  at  war. 

He  says  it  is  taken  for  granted  that  when  peace 
comes,  it  will  be  followed  by  some  definite  concert  of 
power  to  make  any  such  catastrophe  as  the  present 
war  impossible  in  future.  He  attempts  to  define  on 
what  conditions  the  government  he  represents  would 
feel  justified  in  asking  our  people  to  join  such  a  con- 
cert. It  would  depend  very  much,  he  thinks,  on  how 
and  on  what  terms  the  war  ends.  We  should  not 
wish  to  go  in  merely  to  secure  a  new  balance  of 
power,  because  no  guarantee  could  secure  it.  The 
aim  should  be  "not  organized  rivalries,  but  an  or- 
ganized common  peace." 

No  peace  can  last,  he  says,  or  ought  to  last  which 
does  not  accept  the  principles  "that  governments  de- 
rive all  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed,  and  that  no  right  anywhere  exists  to  hand 
peoples  about  from  sovereignty  to  sovereignty  as  if 
they  were  property. 

For  peace  to  last,  he  thinks  the  war  had  better  end 
without  a  victory  for  either  side. 

For  peace  to  last  the  seas  must  be  free,  and  every 
great  people  assured  of  access  to  them,  naval  arma- 
ments must  be  restricted  and  great  preponderating 
armies  cease  to  be  maintained.  I  am  proposing, 
said  Mr.  Wilson,  that  the  nations  should  adopt  the 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  377 

doctrine  of  President  Monroe  as  the  doctrine  of  the 
world — that  no  nation  should  seek  to  extend  its 
policy  over  any  other  nation  or  people;  I  am  pro- 
posing that  all  nations  henceforth  avoid  entangling 
alliances;  I  am  proposing  government  by  the  consent 
of  the  governed,  freedom  of  the  seas,  moderation  of 
armaments;  all  American  principles,  American  poli- 
cies.    "We  stand  for  no  others." 

There  is  a  great  deal  to  digest  in  these  remarks  of 
our  President.  The  world  government  they  aim  to 
promote  is  government  for  all  the  world's  peoples  by 
themselves.  That  in  essence  is  democratic,  whatever 
the  form  of  it.  When  Germany,  Austria,  and  Russia 
agree  to  such  a  proposal,  the  Allies  will  have  won. 


February  8, 1917. 

A  CITIZEN  who  combines  a  high  regard  for 
Col.  Roosevelt  with  a  growing  admiration 
for  President  Wilson  shakes  his  head  when  he 
speaks  of  these  two  gentlemen.  "Dog  and  cat!" 
he  says;  "dog  and  cat!  They  never  agree;  never  see 
"Peace  anything  alike:  never  fight  the  same  way. 
Without^  "It  is  always  so  with  dog  and  cat.  Dogs 
Victory  j.yj^  ^^  bigger  sizes,  and  can  usually  chase 
cats  up  trees;  but  a  cat  can  lick  his  weight  in  dog, 
and  more,  and  when  you  get  to  the  big  cats — why, 
they're  symbols  for  efficient  fighting." 

One  can  find  in  Mr.  Wilson's  address  on  world 
peace  very  much  v/hat  he  looks  for.  The  clashes 
of  sentiment  about  it  are  illuminating.  All  the 
political  minds  reveal  themselves  by  their  reaction 
on  that  address.     Col.  Roosevelt  says: 

Mr.  Wilson  asks  the  world  to  accept  a  copperhead  peace  of 
dishonour,  a  peace  without  victory  for  the  right,  a  peace  designed 
to  let  wrong  triumph,  a  peace  championed  in  neutral  countries 
by  the  apostles  of  timidity  and  greed.  In  Mexico  he  has  ac- 
cepted and  is  accepting  such  a  peace,  and  by  his  Mexican  policy 
he  has  brought  disaster  to  Mexico  and  dishonour  to  the  United 
States.  His  policies  throughout  his  four  years  have  brought  woe 
to  humanity  and  shame  and  bitterness  of  heart  to  all  Americans 
proud  of  the  honour  of  their  flag. 

There  you  have  very  little  about  Mr.  Wilson  or 
his  address,  but  a  great  deal  about  Col.  Roose- 
velt. It  is  the  canine  attitude  towards  a  feline  prop- 
osition. "No  good  in  it!"  says  the  Colonel,  and 
he  unlimbers  his  Bible,  and  fires  at  Mr.  Wilson  the 
doctrine  of  President  Monroe  as  the  doctrine  of  the 

378 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  379 

curse  of  Meroz,  damned  because  its  people  stood 
neutral  and  "came  not  to  the  help  of  the  Lord  against 
the  Mighty." 

The  Colonel  sees  no  good  whatever  in  Mr.  Wilson 
or  his  works.  He  would  probably  agree  that  as  the 
Prussian  military  domination  has  proved  to  be 
Frankenstein's  monster  for  Germany,  so  Mr.  Wil- 
son's typewriter  has  proved  to  be  Frankenstein's 
monster  for  us.  He  sees  us  caught  in  the  toils  of 
Mr.  Wilson's  rhetoric;  disabled,  discredited,  dis- 
armed. The  Colonel  must  be  having  very  bad 
quarter-hours  when  his  mind  dwells  on  these  mat- 
ters. 

But  his  views  of  the  address  do  not  get  very  gen- 
eral backing.  The  trouble  is  that  people  have 
read  the  address,  and  it  does  not  impress  most  of 
them  at  all  as  it  impresses  the  Colonel.  A  man  of 
strong  Republican  propensities  and  anti- Wilson 
instincts  said  last  week:  "I  thought  the  address 
was  very  interesting,  and  I  was  almost  dismayed 
at  the  narrow  partisanship  with  which  our  local 
Republican  papers  discussed  it.  It  seemed  to  me 
about  85  per  cent.  pro-Ally  and  about  15  per  cent. 
pro-German,  and  that's  not  bad  for  a  neutral." 

People  who  have  read  the  address  with  the  in- 
tention of  finding  it  impossible  have  succeeded,  as 
Mr.  Roosevelt  did,  but  people  who  have  read  it 
looking  for  help  in  time  of  sore  trouble  have  also 
found  their  reward.  A  good  many  old-time  backers 
of  the  Colonel  think  hopefully  of  the  address  as  a 
step  towards  the  reordering  of  the  world.  "President 
Wilson,"  says  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  lately  a  Roose- 
velt rooter  at  Chicago,  "has  revived  the  behef  of 
many  fainting  hearts.  To  deny  the  world-public 
spirit  of  this  significant  speech  would  be  unfriendly 
to  the  interests  of  mankind." 

Mr.  Taft  takes  very  much  that  view,  saying  that 


380  THE  DIAHY  OF  A  NATION 

the  speech  "is  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  our  foreign 
pohcy,"  and  rejoicing  in  Mr.  Wilson's  support  of 
the  idea  of  a  league  to  enforce  peace. 

Mr.  Root  comes  forward  as  a  critic,  not  destruc- 
tive like  Col.  Roosevelt,  but  one  in  full  sympathy 
with  the  purposes  of  the  speech  and  its  "noble 
idealism."  He  does  not  reject  the  idea  of  "a  peace 
without  victory."  "I  sympathize  with  that,"  he 
said,  but  pointed  out  what  seems  obvious  enough, 
that  "the  peace  that  the  President  describes  in- 
volves the  absolute  destruction  of  the  principle 
(of  national  aggrandizement  and  immorality)  upon 
which  this  war  was  begun."  If  a  peace  without 
victory  can  enthrone  justice,  Mr.  Root  is  for  it, 
but  if  not,  he  is  for  a  peace  after  victory  by  the 
Allies.  And  he  emphasized  with  all  his  power  the 
proposition  that  such  a  peace  as  Mr.  Wilson  pro- 
poses, resting  on  an  armed  force  capable  of  main- 
taining it,  "absolutely  requires  that  we  shall  build 
up  a  force  commensurate  with  our  size  and  wealth 
and  our  part  among  the  nations  of  the  earth." 

The  gist  of  the  situation  for  us  Americans  seems 
to  be  that  Mr.  Wilson's  remarks  to  the  Senate  have 
brought  us  as  a  people  plumb  up  against  two  very 
momentous  decisions. 

The  first  is,  Shall  we  agree  to  go  in  with  the  rest 
of  mankind  for  an  organized  peace  resting  on  armed 
force,  and  involving  more  or  less  submission  of  our 
national  interests  and  aspirations  to  some  kind  of  a 
World  Court.^ 

The  second  is.  Have  we  got  it  in  us  to  devise  and 
maintain  a  sufficient  army  and  navy  to  support  the 
part  assigned  to  us  in  such  an  organization? 

Over  both  of  these  questions  we  may  expect  earnest 
disputation.  There  will  be  impassioned  opposition 
to  any  plan  which  draws  this  country  into  respon- 
sible co-operation  with  the  political  S3^stem  of  Eu- 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  381 

rope.  Senator  Borah,  a  powerful  representative 
Republican,  has  already  come  out  against  it.  So, 
apparently,  has  Mr.  Bryan.  They  will  have  plenty 
of  company,  including,  probably,  Mr.  Roosevelt 
and  all  the  Wilson  haters,  Mr.  Wickersham,  per- 
haps, and  Heaven  knows  how  many  Democrats. 

And  about  military  preparation,  necessary  if  we 
are  to  co-operate  with  Europe  and  doubly  and  trebly 
necessary  if  we  don't,  there  are  immense  disputes  to 
come.  The  country  has  not  yet  appreciated  the 
need  nor  accepted  the  idea  of  it.  It  merely  gapes 
at  it,  and  is  apt  to  turn  away  from  the  column  of 
the  newspaper  in  which  it  is  discussed  to  read  about 
the  "leak  investigation,"  or  the  hunger-strikes,  or 
the  latest  war  news.  It  is  probably  true  that  the 
administration  has  let  the  psychological  moments  for 
war  preparation  go  to  waste,  and  it  is  certainly 
true  that  the  Hay  plan  wasted  a  lot  of  time  without 
producing  any  reliable  system.  Now  we  have  got 
to  work  up  a  citizen-army  plan  in  cold  blood,  and 
that's  no  joke. 

Whether  we  will  do  it,  whether  the  country  will 
back  Mr.  Wilson  in  his  proposals,  are  questions 
which  Europe,  of  course,  has  to  consider.  The  first 
endorsement  of  the  President's  idea  must  come 
from  these  States,  and  we  are  now  so  much  in  the 
neutral  attitude  in  which  we  have  been  schooled 
that  it  is  hard  for  us  to  endorse  anything.  Mr. 
Wilson  has  practised  us  thoroughly  in  doing  nothing. 
When  our  blood  has  been  up  he  has  bidden  us  be 
calm.  When  our  near  neighbours  have  raised  hob 
he  has  bidden  us  watch  and  wait.  We  are  now  ex- 
cellent m  calmness,  and  can  watch  and  wait  to  beat 
the  world,  but  whether  we  can  stir  about  and  provide 
for  a  large  permanent  military  force  to  back  our  pre- 
tensions as  co-operators  in  pacification  remains  to 
be  seen.     Our  genie  of  aloofness  is  completely  out 


382  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

of  the  bottle,  and  it  is  going  to  be  no  small  job  to 
conjure  him  back  into  it  again.  We  are  cold  iron. 
When  we  were  hot  Mr.  Wilson  thought  it  best  not 
to  strike.  Whether  now,  without  getting  us  into 
the  war,  he  can  heat  us  up  to  the  point  of  necessary 
peace  and  peace-league  preparation  remains  to  be 
seen. 

And  of  course  a  vast  deal  else  "remains  to  be 
seen."  The  Kaiser's  brief  birthday  remarks  made 
it  look  as  though  the  Lord  had  hardened  Pharaoh's 
heart  again,  and  the  war  plagues  would  go  right 
on  to  the  end.  They  are  very  severe  and  getting 
worse  all  the  time.  If  our  Moses  is  to  abate  them 
at  all  he  must  win  the  people  to  support  him.  He 
must  win  more  than  the  bare  majority  that  re- 
elected him.  He  must  have  the  real  strength  of  the 
country  behind  him,  and  that  means  the  backing 
of  many  men  who  voted  for  Mr.  Hughes. 

Many  such  men  approved  heartily  of  his  address 
to  the  Senate,  and  could  be  enlisted  to  stand  behind 
it  if  their  confidence  in  the  administration  could 
be  increased.  It  might  be  increased,  undoubtedly, 
by  new  appointments  made  next  month  when  Mr. 
Wilson's  second  term  as  President  commences,  but 
appointments  of  that  sort  are  not  anticipated. 
The  naval  program,  which  is  the  most  important, 
seems  to  be  going  along  as  fast  as  any  one  could  send 
it  just  now,  which  is  not  saying  very  much.  If  we 
get  an  army  program  before  Congress  adjourns, 
well  and  good.  We  shall  probably  get  something, 
but  probably  not  universal  service,  which  seems 
more  and  more  to  be  what  we  must  ultimately  come 
to.  But  Mr.  Wilson's  address  has  to  do,  not  with 
immediate  affairs,  but  with  the  settlement  that  is 
to  follow  the  war,  and  the  war's  end  seems  still  far 
enough  off  to  give  us  ample  time  to  make  up  our 
minds. 


February  15, 1917, 

MUCH  obliged  to  Germany  for  once! 
Nobody  else   could   liave   put   us    where 
we  belong. 

It  is  a  great  relief — oh,  very  great — and  everybody 
sighs  and  seems  delighted.  It  becomes  worth  while 
Germany  ^^^^  morc  to  read  the  papers,  which,  what 
to  the  with  Belgian  deportations  and  French  de- 
Rescue  portations — especially  the  recent  herding 
off  of  thousands  of  French  women — and  other  in- 
famies, had  come  to  be  weary  work.  We  could 
do  nothing  about  the  lamentable  things  we  read  of, 
and  as  it  is.  Heaven  knows  what  we  can  do,  and 
things  are  likely  to  be  worse  before  they  are  better. 
But  at  least,  and  at  last,  we  are  on  the  way  to 
where  we  belong. 

And  Germany  did  us  this  great  favour!  Thanks 
be  to  Germany  for  this  mercy — the  kindest  thing 
she  has  done  since  the  war  began.  George  Viereck 
said  of  the  German  notice  when  it  came:  "It  cannot 
fail  to  give  unlimited  satisfaction  to  the  President 
as  well  as  the  American  people."  Just  our  senti- 
ment to  a  hair!  Thank  you,  George!  The  Presi- 
dent, with  a  proper  regard  for  propriety,  has  dis- 
guised the  satisfaction  which  it  must  have  given 
him,  but  he  admits  that  it  has  done  the  business, 
and  he  has  sent  a  full  set  of  passports  to  Excellency 
Bernstorff,  who  receives  them  with  resignation,  but 
sadly,  for  he  has  tried  hard  to  keep  the  peace. 
That  is  all,  up  to  this  writing,  but  all  the  rest  seems 
to  be  coming  down  the  road,  and  it  gives  a  new 
flavour  to  life. 

S83 


384  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

And  what  a  thorough  job.  It  was  hard  to  get 
us  into  the  war.  We  couldn't  well  butt  in,  and  if 
we  had,  there  would  have  been  a  great  multitude 
of  reluctants  who  would  have  hung  back  and  pro- 
tested, but  here  comes  this  German  notice,  standing 
not  at  all  on  ceremony  or  manners,  but  seemingly 
bent  on  fetching  us  all  in  together.  Democrats  and 
Republicans,  hyphens,  pacifists,  and  everybody, 
with  a  great  boot  in  our  collective  behind. 

Any  way,  so  we  get  where  we  belong!  The  best 
way  to  get  into  a  war  is  the  way  that  makes  the  most 
people  glad  to  be  in.  That  was  the  thorough,  Ger- 
man way.  A  wonderful  people,  the  Germans !  The 
nations,  first  or  last,  have  all  done  plenty  that  they 
ought  not  to  have  done.  The  people  are  not  so 
bad,  but  the  nations  have  all  been  hogs,  and  worse, 
according  to  their  opportunities,  and  one  can  easily 
make  out  that  they  ought  all  to  be  in  jail.  The  dis- 
tinction to  make  about  the  Germans  under  their 
present  management  is  that  the  place  for  them  is  in 
the  jail  for  the  criminal  insane.  Considering  what 
the  habits  of  nations  have  been,  and  that  all  of  them 
who  have  got  much  of  anything  took  it  away  from 
some  one  else,  it  would  not  have  been  hard  to  make 
out  a  passable  casus  belli  for  Germany  as  against, 
say.  Great  Britain.  But  from  first  to  last  the  Ger- 
mans have  silenced  exculpation  and  defense  by  their 
atrocious  behaviours.  They  have  insisted  that  no 
one  with  eyes  should  fail  to  see  that  to  beat  them  in 
this  war  was  the  price  of  even  a  fair  approximation 
to  peace  on  earth.  Our  President,  hating  war, 
held  out  against  this  conviction  to  the  very  last. 
Now  they  have  bagged  him,  too,  and  with  him,  at 
last,  the  United  States. 

Glory  be,  and  gratitude,  for  that  result,  but  why 
did  they  do  it.^ 

No  doubt  the  German  Government  had  to  do  it. 


TTTE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  385 

It  is  incredible  that  even  Germans  could  have  sup- 
posed that  their  notice  would  be  accepted  at  Wash- 
ington. But  dearth  is  crowding  Germany  hard. 
The  hardships  and  even  the  cruelties  of  the  war  have 
doubtless  revolted  many  of  the  German  people; 
discontent  must  be  very  prevalent,  and  the  dynasty 
looks  like  a  cornered  rat.  There  was  this  one  weapon, 
the  submarine,  not  yet  used  to  its  limit.  Every 
other  tuck  being  let  out,  this  one  had  to  go,  too,  to 
raise  one  more  hope  in  the  hearts  of  the  German 
people. 

And  they  tell  us  that  Hindenburg,  the  idol  of  the 
Germans,  came  slowly  to  believe  that  the  new  sub- 
marines might  do  the  business  for  England,  and  sup- 
ported with  his  great  influence  the  proposal  to  turn 
them  loose. 

That  is  one  explanation.  Another  is  that  the 
German  Government  wanted  the  United  States  in 
the  war  to  save  the  German  face  when  the  end  came. 
That  is  Admiral  Beresford's  idea,  put  out  a  year  or 
more  ago.     At  this  stage  there  may  be  truth  in  it.       ^ 

But  after  all,  wasn't  it  just  the  German  way;' 
another  detail  of  the  method  that  was  illustrated 
by  the  rape  of  Belgium,  and  that  has  been  steadily 
illustrated  ever  suice  by  one  thing  after  another? 
A  gambler,  or  a  stock-speculator,  is  apt  to  lose  in 
part  the  control  of  his  mind.  His  judgment  ceases 
to  govern  his  action.  He  dreams  of  great  winnings; 
every  last  chance  becomes  for  him  the  opportmiity 
of  a  lifetime,  and  he  goes  on  till  he  has  nothing 
left. 

So  Germany!  It  looks  as  though  she  could  not 
stop,  nor  any  one  save  her;  as  though  her  performance 
must  go  through  to  the  end  of  the  last  appointed 
act,  and  the  curtain  be  rung  dowTi  on  the  finish  of 
that  in  her  that  has  wrought  her  ruin,  and  brought 
the  whole  world  to  its  knees. 


386,  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

To  be  sure,  as  Life  goes  to  press  we  are  not  yet  in 
the  war,  and  if  Germany  suddenly  wills  that  we 
stay  out  she  may  contrive  to  exclude  us  for  a  while 
longer.  The  accession  to  our  demand  for  release 
of  American  prisoners  captured  by  raiders  is  evi- 
dence of  a  disposition  to  appease  our  Uncle  Sam. 
But  the  chances  now  are  all  against  an  effectual 
side-step.  Mr.  Bryan  knows  how  we  can  keep  out, 
and  has  issued  a  statement  expounding  it,  the  sub- 
stance of  which  is  that  if  we  mind  our  eye,  and  do 
promptly  and  precisely  what  Germany  desires,  we 
needn't  get  in.  "Wire  immediately,"  he  says,  "to 
the  President,  your  Senators  and  your  Congressmen. 
A  few  cents  now  may  save  many  dollars  in  taxation 
and  possibly  a  son." 

Brother  Bill  is  a  thrifty  soul,  but  this  time  his 
advertisement  gets  no  better  place  than  the  back 
pages  of  the  papers,  and  there  seem  to  be  few  who 
want  to  take  his  medicine.  The  situation  is  far 
beyond  any  capacity  of  his  to  affect.  Indeed  it 
seems  quite  beyond  human  direction.  It  is  sur- 
rounded by  huge,  inexorable  compulsions.  Ger- 
many must  fight  on,  for  if  she  stops  her  government 
will  collapse.  The  Allies  must  fight  on  or  leave 
Germany  victorious;  we  must  get  in  if  Germany 
wills  it,  or  become  an  outcast  among  nations.  What- 
ever this  war  is  intended  to  effect  must  be  effected 
before  it  can  end,  and  cost  what  it  may,  whoever  is 
summoned  to  lend  a  hand  must  respond.  No  one 
who  is  called  is  free  to  hang  back.  Barring  some 
miracle  of  peace  such  as  might  result  from  internal 
revolt  in  Germany,  the  worst  of  the  war  is  still  to 
come.  The  Germans  have  given  notice  that  they 
intend  to  run  amuck  on  the  sea.  If  they  do,  it  is 
reasonable  to  expect  that  they  will  do  the  same  on 
land.  With  our  country  drawn  in,  the  last  restraint 
on  deviltry  is  gone.     No  neutral  country  will  be 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  387 

safe,  nor  any  prisoner  of  war.  We  may  look  for 
massacres,  and  if  the  Allies  finally  break  through  into 
Germany,  for  appalling  reprisals.  This  war  has 
already  yielded  horrors  unmatched  for  centuries. 
The  Thirty  Years'  War  was  the  worst  preceding 
this,  and  that  was  mainly  fought  by  Germans.  If 
the  Germans  set  out  to  convince  their  neighbours 
that  the  only  good  German  is  a  dead  one,  it  is  safe 
to  assume  that  they  will  make  a  thorough  job  of  it 
as  usual. 

So  that  seems  to  be  the  kind  of  war  we  are  on  the 
brink  of.  Probably  it  will  soon  be  done  with  now — 
but  we  can't  tell.  Probably  we  shall  not  get  into 
it  very  far — but  we  can't  tell.  All  we  know  is  what 
Mr.  Wilson  has  recognized,  that  no  one  who  is  sum- 
moned to  that  war  can  refuse  to  respond. 

Our  American  Hyphens  seem  to  see  the  case 
much  as  the  rest  of  us  do.  They  don't  feel  happy  to 
have  us  in  with  the  Allies,  but  their  talk  is  very 
sober  and  loyal  to  Uncle  Sam.  It  helps  the  case 
with  them  very  much  that  we  get  into  the  war — 
if  we  do — by  act  of  Germany. 


March  8,  1917. 

OUR  ships  and  our  flag  are  being  excluded 
from  the  seas  by  the  threat  of  death  and 
destruction  conveyed  m  Germany's  declara- 
tion of  war  on  neutral  shipping.  The  need  of  the 
hour  is  to  take  effectual  measures  to  safeguard 
Time  to  our  shipping  and  our  citizens,  rather  than 
Do  Some-  to  wait  for  Americans  to  be  murdered  and 
thing         then  go  to  war  to  punish  the  offender. 

To  refuse,  or  too  long  delay,  such  protection 
would  be  to  acquiesce  in  the  ]  subjugation  of 
i\merican  rights  to  German  domination.  The 
time  has  come  to  assure  the  President  that  he  will 
have  the  overwhelming  support  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen  in  taking  effective  measures  to  meet 
the  intolerable  situation  with  which  the  country  is 
now  confronted." 

So  runs  an  advertisement  in  the  newspapers  of 
February  26tli,  signed  by  William  H.  Taft,  Joseph 
H.  Choate,  Alton  B.  Parker,  Elihu  Root,  John  B. 
Stanchfield,  James  Byrne,  Charles  C.  Burlingham, 
Martin  W.  Littleton  and  forty  others,  who  ask  all 
those  who  desire  to  join  in  expressing  these  views  to 
send  their  names  to  be  communicated  to  the  Presi- 
dent and  the  members  of  Congress. 

These  views  sound  good  and  deserve  support. 
Please,  Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Con- 
gress, give  activity,  give  punch,  to  these  sentiments! 
We  would  like,  oh,  so  much!  to  have  something 
done.  Germany's  hand  on  our  windpipe  does  not 
feel  good.  We  were  willing  to  gurgle  along  a  few 
days  under  it  while  necessary  precautions  are  taken 

388 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  389 

and  preliminaries  arranged,  but  it  is  not  comfort- 
able nor  is  it  soothing.  We  do  not  wish  to  get  used 
to  it.  We  wish  to  break  this  German  clutch  or 
know  why  not. 

To  read  of  American  Line  steamers  transferring 
their  mails  to  British  boats  and  discharging  their 
outbound  cargoes  makes  us  feel  sick. 

When  New  York  is  practically  blockaded  by 
German  orders,  assuredly  it  is  time  to  do  something. 
But  it  can  only  be  done  by  you,  Mr.  President. 
You  are  not  only  the  best  bet  in  this  matter,  but 
the  only  bet. 

The  President  himself  feels  and  realizes  all  these 
things.  He  said  so  in  his  discourse  to  Congress  on 
February  26th,  when  he  rehearsed,  very  much  as 
above,  what  was  going  on,  and  asked  the  Congress, 
so  near  its  finish,  to  give  him  "full  and  immediate 
assurance"  of  the  authority  he  might  any  moment 
have  to  exercise.  "No  doubt,"  he  said,  "I  already 
possess  that  authority  without  special  warrant  of 
law,  but  I  wish  to  feel  that  the  authority  and  the 
power  of  the  Congress  are  behind  me  in  whatever  it 
may  become  necessary  for  me  to  do." 

Now  the  quality  of  the  ginger  in  the  Congressional 
flask  is  not  rated  very  high,  but  if  Mr.  Wilson  wants 
a  nip  of  it,  no  doubt  he  ought  to  have  it.  Life  goes 
to  press  without  seeing  the  response  of  Congress  to 
the  President's  requisition,  but  he  asked  it  flatly  to 
authorize  him  to  supply  our  merchant  ships  with 
defensive  arms  and  the  means  to  use  them,  which  is 
gunners.  A  Congress  may  be  afraid  or  disinclined 
to  back  a  President  with  that  sort  of  authority,  but 
presumably  it  will  be  still  more  afraid  to  refuse. 
So  one  expects  at  this  writing  to  see  the  President 
get  what  he  asks  for. 

He  assured  Congress  at  length  of  his  pacific  in- 
tentions. 


390  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

He  need  not  have  been  at  that  pains. 

Anywhere — from  Germany,  from  the  AlHes,  from 
every  faction  and  every  American  in  Mexico,  from 
the  man  in  the  street,  from  Jordan,  Bryan,  Ford, 
and  Villard,  and  especially  from  Bernstorff — he  can 
get  affidavits  to  his  pacific  intentions.  He  has  an 
imperishable  record  as  a  hanger-back  from  war. 
When  he  calls  for  recruits,  his  spirit  penetrates  his 
periods,  and  the  recruits  stay  at  home.  When  he 
puts  his  lips  to  the  trumpet,  the  sound  that  follows 
is  the  note  of  the  flageolet. 

Mr.  Wilson  has  remarkable  brains  and  remark- 
able merits,  but  he  is  a  bad  hand  at  the  tocsin. 
Here  he  is  starting  out  on  his  second  term,  with  the 
great  war  two  and  a  half  years  old,  and  look  at  us! 
No  army  worth  mentionmg,  and  no  considerable 
increase  of  the  strength  of  the  navy.  He  was  a 
year  and  a  half  late  in  starting  to  get  an  army. 
He  should  have  gone  about  it  in  October,  1914. 
He  wouldn't.  He  did  not  see  the  need  of  it  then, 
nor  for  a  whole  year  more.  He  kept  Daniels  in 
the  navy  probably  because  he  hated  all  military 
establishment,  and  if  he  must  have  a  navy,  wanted 
the  most  pacific  one  he  could  get. 

He  need  not  have  assured  Congress  that  he  was 
not  now  "proposing  or  contemplating  war  or  any 
steps  that  need  lead  to  it,"  nor  expressed  his  be- 
lief that  the  people  will  trust  him  to  act  with  re- 
straint. Congress  knew  it:  we  all  know  it.  Re- 
straint is  his  long  suit.  He  is  bold  as  a  lion  to  speak 
a  piece,  but  he  hates  war.  If  he  ever  gets  into  it 
it  will  be  because  he  is  crowded  in.  He  says  so, 
and  it  is  true. 

If  we  are  to  have  war  we  shall  have  to  get  it  for 
ourselves,  and  fight  it  after  we  have  got  it.  He  will 
neither  get  us  in  nor  get  us  out  of  it.  He  is  not  a 
Washington,  nor  a  Jackson,  nor  a  Lincoln.     He  is  a 


i 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  391 

Presbyterian  Jefferson.  If  it  is  part  of  the  doom  of 
Germany  to  force  us  into  the  war  and  part  of  our 
doom  to  be  forced  in,  Mr.  Wilson  will  recognize  it 
and  will  go  in  with  us;  but  that  is  the  most  we  can 
expect  from  him. 

But  let  us  not  repine.  War  is  an  abomination. 
Why  should  not  a  man  hate  it.'^  Armies  and  navies 
are  a  nuisance  and  a  waste.  What  harm  to  Mr. 
Wilson  if  he  has  fizzled  as  an  army-raiser,  and  will 
be  best  remembered  in  naval  history  as  the  patron 
of  Daniels  and  Doctor  Grayson.'^ 

He  is  a  good  exponent  of  democracy.  He  is  a 
better  President  than  we  are  entitled  to  have;  abler, 
better  trained,  and  probably  a  better  character. 
We  brag  about  democracy;  offer  it  to  Europe  as  a 
panacea;  almost  get  into  the  war  to  demonstrate  its 
great  merit  and  save  it.  Mr.  Wilson  stands  for  our 
democracy.  The  people  have  twice  chosen  him, 
different  people  each  time.  Two  sets  of  us,  first 
and  last,  have  approved  him.  His  title  has  no  flaw. 
He  is  now  seasoned  in  office.  If  democracy  is  a 
crime,  he  is  our  punishment.  If  it  is  a  virtue,  he  is 
our  reward. 

Make  your  choices,  gentlemen;  call  him  which 
you  like,  but  either  way,  he  is  our  fate.  He  is  to- 
day the  valid  expression  of  American  democracy. 
It  has  laid  an  egg  and  he  is  that  egg,  and  in  sym- 
pathy with  most  of  the  hen.  If  she  cackles  some- 
what discordantly  at  having  reproduced  him,  it  is 
no  fault  of  his.  She  is  a  discordant  creature,  and 
never  cackles  with  a  united  voice  over  any  eggy  no 
matter  how  fresh. 

If  we  recognize  Mr.  Wilson's  legitimacy,  it  may 
give  us  more  courage  and  more  patience  to  go  on 
with  him.  We  have  got  to  go  on  with  him  anyhow. 
We  cannot  act  except  through  him.  He  will  not 
lead  us  any  more  than  he  can  help,  but  he  invites 


392  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

us  all  to  push  him.  He  wants  Congress  to  push 
him  into  putting  guns  on  the  merchant  ships,  he 
v/ants  us  all  to  push  him  into  military  preparation. 

We  are  not  used  to  the  job  of  pushing  Presidents, 
but  the  pacifists  are  teaching  us  how  to  do  it.  And 
the  Germans,  who  are  teaching  and  pushing  all  the 
world,  are  going  to  help  us.  While  BernstorflF  stayed 
here,  they  pushed  us  for  peace.  Now  that  Bern- 
storff  has  gone  home  they  are  pushing  us  for  war. 

Let  us  daily  be  thanldul  that  Bernstorff  has  gone 
home.  But  it  was  President  Wilson  who  sent  him. 
It  came  to  look  right  to  him  that  Bernstorff  should 
go,  and  Bernstorff  went.  It  will  come  to  look  right 
to  him  to  put  guns  on  our  merchant  ships,  and 
get  our  navy  on  its  job,  and  he  will  produce  the  guns 
and  the  navy.  When  we  cannot  make  necessary 
action  look  right  to  him,  Germany  will  do  it.  It  is 
her  destiny  to  doctor  the  world,  and  she  has  the 
needful  medicines  and  is  constrained  to  administer 
them  even  to  us. 

So  let  us  not  worry  about  Mr.  Wilson.  It  is 
doubtful  if  we  can  handle  him,  or  he  can  handle  us, 
but  destiny  can  handle  both  of  us,  and  will. 


March  22, 1917, 

BERLIN  to  Bagdad"  was  the  German  hope; 
an  aspiration  hardly  less  bumptious  than 
"The  Cape  to  Cairo."  The  Germans  still 
hold  Berlin,  but  the  British  at  last  have  nipped 
Bagdad. 

It  means  more  geography  for  us  backward  scholars 
in  the  United  States  and  a  fresh  line  of  computation! 
about  who  is  to  be  who  in  the  coming  world. 
^^  After  so  much  Map  of  Europe,  it  is  a  grateful 
and  romantic  change  to  turn  over  to  the  "Arabian 
Nights"  and  the  Old  Testament  and  commune  geo- 
graphically with  Joshua,  Sindbad,  Haroun-al-Raschid 
and  Ezekiel.  Basra,  Bagdad,  Ctesiphon,  Jerusalem, 
Joppa — delightful  names,  full  of  flavour  and  associa- 
tion with  the  world  before  the  Ford,  all  in  the  war  now, 
and  fetching  to  the  tired  imagination  a  hope  that 
something  out  of  the  immemorial  East  will  penetrate 
the  incessant  West,  and  make  its  exhausting  activi- 
ties a  little  less  strenuous. 

Bagdad  was  a  good  town  in  its  day;  a  world  metrop- 
olis for  a  time.  No  doubt  it  will  have  a  new  boom 
as  a  consequence  of  the  war  and  new  connections 
with  the  more  pushing  races  of  men.  If  the  British 
are  able  to  keep  it,  it  will  be  less  mussed  up  than  if 
the  Germans  get  it,  and  possibly  it  will  remain  in  a 
better  case  to  impart  soothing  influences  to  a  world 
over-organized  for  action.  A  little  of  the  3,000- 
year-old  Bagdad  virus  could  be  profitably  used  to 
inoculate  our  modern  cities,  beginning  with  New 
York  and  Chicago,  but  possibly  excepting  Philadel- 
phia.    So  much  of  the  world  will  be  made  over  after 

393 


394  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

the  war  that  it  will  be  unpleasantly  new  for  a  long 
time  to  come,  and  all  that  part  of  it  that  Turkish 
rule  has  kept  in  a  backward  state  will  have  art  values 
and  rest-cure  uses,  which  gainful  persons  will,  doubt- 
less, cultivate  to  their  profit. 

Happily  the  Asiatic  flavour  seems  to  be  ineradic- 
able, and  will  stick  to  these  old  cities,  no  matter 
what. 


March  29,  1917, 

IT  IS  a  serious  matter  to  be  a  week  behind  iii 
remarks  with  history  making  so  fast.  Will  the 
reader  please  notice  that  at  this  writing  nothing 
much  has  happened,  except  that  the  Czar  has  got 
the  blue  envelope,  the  Germans  on  the  western  front 
The  Czar  have  gone  back  to  the  rear  of  Bapaume 
Is  Out  and  Peronne,  the  U-boats  have  sunk 
overnight  three  American  ships,  and  the  President 
has  called  the  railroad  strike  off  because  of  the  im- 
minence of  a  state  of  war. 

What  Russia  wants  is  to  get  rid  of  Germanized 
misgovernment.  Bismarck  once  said  that  the  top 
and  bottom  of  Russia  were  all  right,  but  the  bureau- 
cracy was  the  devil.  Czars  have  been  good  and 
bad,  but  the  great  mischief  of  recent  times  has  been 
the  reactionary  office-holding  crowds,  who  found 
their  profit  in  power,  and  upheld  the  Czar  because 
they  could  use  him. 

It  is  no  news  that  Nicholas  is  a  weak  brother, 
but  when  the  war  started  he  was  for  beating  Ger- 
many, and  probably  sincere  in  that  desire.  But 
Russia  had  to  be  reorganized  to  carry  on  the  war. 
The  reorganization  gave  power  to  some  men  who 
were  fit  to  use  it,  and  proportionately  dislocated  the 
unfit.  That  frightened  the  bureaucrats,  who  saw 
in  a  reorganized  Russia  a  bad  outlook  for  themselves. 
They  were  Germanized  anyway,  many  by  blood, 
and  the  rest  by  association  and  policy,  and  added 
to  their  German-made  politics,  immense  rascalities 
and  brutishness  of  their  own.  Their  hope  came 
to  be  for  a  German  victory,  or  at  least  the  retire- 

395 


396  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

ment  of  Russia  from  the  war,  and  in  their  labours  to 
realize  that  hope  they  captured  the  Czar  and  used 
his  power  to  defeat  the  war-policy  of  Russia. 

The  revolution  that  came  to  a  head  on  the  fifteenth 
of  March  had  been  going  on  for  months.  Its  cul- 
mination seems  to  have  been  remarkably  peace- 
able. The  Czar  is  out;  his  legatee  is  waiting  to 
hear  what  is  the  will  of  the  Russian  people  as  to 
their  government.  Meanwhile  Milukoff  is  the  leader, 
the  government  is  the  Duma  and  its  ministers,  with  a 
republic  or  a  constitutional  monarchy  in  prospect 
when  there  is  time  for  these  details. 

What  further  explosions  are  to  come  in  Russia  is 
not  yet  clear.  How  the  army  will  take  these  changes, 
and  how  much  hob  the  bureaucrats  and  reaction- 
aries may  still  avail  to  raise,  is  not  yet  disclosed. 
But  one  of  the  great  jobs  the  great  war  was  ex- 
pected to  do  is  far  on  the  way  toward  accomplish- 
ment. Russia  has  reached  out  and  grasped  self- 
government,  and  there  is  good  hope  that  she  will  be 
able  to  hold  on  to  it. 

At  any  rate  German  influence  in  Russia  and  Ger- 
man hopes  generally  have  had  a  hard  blow.  The 
Russian  people  believe  in  this  war  and  want  to 
win  it,  and  this  new  government  in  Russia  is  the 
government  of  the  Russian  people  and  the  expres- 
sion of  the  national  desire,  and  its  first  purpose  will 
be  to  carry  on  the  war. 

The  Kaiser  has  now  seen  what  may  happen,  and 
all  the  Germans  have  doubtless  noticed  what  may 
be  done,  when  a  country  becomes  dissatisfied  with 
its  leading. 

One  hears  that  the  agents  of  the  German  Secret 
Service  in  America  have  surveyed  Milwaukee,  New- 
port, and  other  places,  and  are  still  looking  around 
to  see  whereabouts  a  high-bom  German  exile  could 
best  expect  to  be  happy.     There  was  significance  in 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  397 

Von  HoUweg's  admission  in  the  Tteichstag  that  these 
are  dangerous  times  for  folks  who  can't  see  what  is 
coming  to  them. 

Brother  Charles  of  Austria  doubtless  also  has  his 
thoughts!  The  "cataract  of  thrones,"  anticipated 
by  an  Englishman  who  w^as  quoted  in  the  papers, 
has  begun,  and  the  redemption  value  of  crowns  in 
hock  is  visibly  sinking. 

Brother  Ralph  Adams  Cram  reminds  us  that 
Jerusalem  is  about  to  fall  again  into  Christian  hands 
after  being  for  nearly  seven  hundred  years  a  spoil 
of  Turks.  He  says  we  are  all  to  ring  our  church- 
bells  when  it  happens,  and  that  we  will  be  no  better 
than  infidels  if  we  don't. 

And  Bagdad,  held  by  British  troops,  is  invited  by 
proclamation  to  enjoy  again  the  liberties  of  which 
Turkish-German  domination  had  deprived  it !  Truly, 
events  are  moving  fast  in  these  obstreperous  days. 


April  5, 1917. 

LET  us  not  hold  with  the  Christian  Endeavour 
Society,  which,  the  newspaper  says,  has  be- 
gun at  Chicago  "a  movement  to  oppose  the 
custom  of  display  of  new  attire  on  Easter.  The 
paper  says  the  Endeavourers  deplore  the  custom 
Easter  in  oTi  general  principles,  but  especially  this 
War  Time  year,  because  of  the  European  war. 

The  Endeavourers  are  off  the  track  in  this  matter. 
It  is  perfectly  suitable  to  break  out  in  new  clothes  at 
Easter.  It  matches  the  spirit  of  the  day.  It  may, 
of  course,  be  overdone,  like  everything  else,  but  gen- 
eral principles  are  all  for  it. 

If  you  are  pagan  and  Easter  is  no  more  than  the 
great  spring  festival,  does  not  spring  re-clothe  the 
earth  in  fresh  garments  and  shall  not  you  do  like- 
wise .^^ 

And  if  you  are  Christian,  the  Lord  has  risen,  and  it 
becomes  you  to  decorate  not  only  your  church  and 
your  house,  but  your  person,  and,  especially  if  you 
be  a  woman,  your  blessed  head. 

As  to  the  war  as  an  argument  against  Easter  glories, 
of  all  times  it  is  in  war-time  that  Easter  comes 
best,  the  day  of  most  hope  to  the  desolate,  of  most 
consolation  to  the  bereaved.  If  the  Chicago  friends 
think  our  Easter  should  be  frumpy  because  we  Amer- 
icans have  not  done  enough  in  the  war  to  warrant 
us  in  any  great  bravery  of  raiment,  there  is  basis,  of 
course,  for  that  opinion.  If  they  hold  that  with  so 
much  distress  in  the  world  we  Americans  can  do 
better  with  our  money  than  spend  unnecessary  dol- 
lars of  it  on  dress,  that  also  is  true.     But  if  there  is  to 

393 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  399 

be  new  garb,  there  is  no  occasion  it  can  better  honour 
than  Easter,  and  no  Easter  fitter  so  to  be  honoured 
than  Easter  this  year. 

For,  pagan  or  Christian,  the  great  spring  festival 
stands  for  confidence  in  life  in  spite  of  death.  It 
brings  anew  the  eternal  message  annually  reiterated. 
It  says  that: 

-manhood  is  the  one  immortal  thing 


Beneath  Time's  changeful  sky — 

That  length  of  days  is  knowing  when  to  die. 


Without  confidence  in  that  principle,  how  can 
people  get  along  with  war  that  gathers  the  young  to 
its  untimely  reaping;  with  this  war  especially,  which 
gathers  all  the  ages  with  a  pitiless  voracity  that 
shows,  as  yet,  no  sign  of  satiation?  It  must  go  hard 
indeed  with  any  one  who  does  not  feel  that  life  is 
something  to  be  spent;  not  hoarded,  but  given  in 
purchase  when  the  treasure  that  is  worth  the  price 
of  it  comes  to  market. 

In  a  day  that  cannot  now  be  very  far  distant,  this 
heroic  period  we  live  in  will  reach  its  further  limit, 
and  there  will  be  peace  again.  But  what  kind  of  a 
world  will  follow,  and  who  will  make  it,  the  living 
or  the  dead.^ 

Be  sure  the  dead  who  have  died  for  it  will  make  it 
in  great  measure  for  a  generation  to  come.  The 
coming  world  will  come  pledged  to  them;  pledged 
to  be  worth  the  price  they  paid  to  save  it,  pledged 
to  realize  their  costly  hopes  for  it.  It  cannot  be  the 
world  it  was.  They  have  paid  to  change  it,  and 
change  it  must.  People  who  reckon  that  the  future 
will  be  another  installment  of  the  past,  reckon  with- 
out the  dead  who  have  died  to  make  it  different. 

Human  life  is  receiving  an  enormous  new  con- 
secration.    Not  in  the  time  of  any  one  alive  three 


400  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

years  ago  will  this  world  be  again  what  it  was  then. 
The  living  are  trying,  and  with  mighty  efforts,  to 
shape  its  course,  but  every  day  and  week  and  month 
they  deal  more  and  more  with  a  world  held  in  mort- 
main, that  proceeds  not  as  they  will,  but  as  the 
dead  decree. 

The  world  that  is  coming  will  belong  to  those  who 
paid  the  price  of  it.  This  is  their  Easter;  theirs 
who  have  emulated  the  sacrifice  whereof  at  this 
time  Christians  celebrate  the  glory.  Not  them  shall 
we  see  come  back  to  earth,  but  we  shall  see  a  res- 
urrected world,  and  it  will  be  theirs. 


April  12, 1917, 

I  AD  VISE  that  the  Congress  declare  the  recent 
course  of  the  Imperial  German  Government 
to  be  in  fact  nothing  less  than  war  against 
the  government  and  people  of  the  United  States; 
that  it  formally  accept  the  status  of  belligerent  which 
Into  the  War  has  thus  been  thrust  upon  it,  and  that 
aiLast  it  take  immediate  steps  not  only  to  put 

the  country  in  a  more  thorough  state  of  defense,  but 
also  to  exert  all  its  power  and  employ  all  its  re- 
sources to  bring  the  government  of  the  German  Em- 
pire to  terms  and  end  the  war." 

So  the  President  to  Congress  on  the  evening  of 
April  2d. 

That  is  the  message  that  we  have  been  waiting 
for.  It  falls  on  grateful  ears,  and  there  is  no  doubt 
of  the  endorsement  that  the  country  will  give  it. 

It  is  a  momentous  message,  but  more  than  wel- 
come. 

To  have  Congress  and  the  President  agree  that 
we  are  now  at  war  with  Germany  is  a  great  advan- 
tage and  satisfaction.  It  is  hard  to  carry  on  a  war 
when  the  enemy  is  so  remote,  but  it  helps  very 
much  to  have  our  authorities  acknowledge  that  it  is 
our  duty  to  try.  It  is,  by  all  odds,  the  most  specu- 
lative enterprise  we  have  started  on  for  half  a  cen- 
tury. Only  seventh  sons  venture  to  predict  how 
far  we  shall  get  in  it,  what  it  will  do  to  us,  or  where 
we  shall  come  out.  But  when  one  jumps  in  on  a 
pressing  errand,  he  does  not  stop  to  measure  how 
deep  the  water  is.  The  important  thing  is — can 
he  swim.f^ 

401 


402  THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION 

We  think  this  country  can  swim  enough  to  ven- 
ture into  war  with  Germany  at  this  time,  but  we 
are  all  curious  to  know  how  it  will  feel  and  what 
we  can  do;  curious  also  to  discover  what,  if  anything, 
can  be  done  to  us. 

Germany  is  so  busy  that  we  cannot  reasonably 
expect  much  attention  from  her,  except  as  we  go 
after  it.  Doubtless  we  will  do  that  very  thing. 
To  stand  on  the  shore  of  the  Western  Hemisphere 
with  thumb  to  nose  and  fingers  wagging  will  hardly 
seem  militant  enough.  The  immediate  job  is  to 
keep  open  communications  across  the  Atlantic,  and 
keep  supplies  moving  eastward.  Senator  La  Fol- 
lette  is  of  the  opinion  that  we  cannot  do  it,  ought 
not  to  do  it,  and  should  not  try,  but  he  and  his 
comrades  count  for  very  little  now,  either  as  fore- 
casters or  as  obstructionists.  We  certainly  will  try 
to  do  everything  they  deprecate.  Being  in  this  war 
we  are  in  it  for  all  we  are  worth,  and,  with  all  our 
defects,  w^e  are  as  well  qualified  to  devise  means  to 
accomplish  the  impossible  as  any  people  implicated 
in  the  existing  troubles. 

There  is  no  country  less  ambitious  than  ours  to  be 
a  great  military  or  naval  power,  but  there  is  no 
country  that,  at  the  bottom,  more  aspires  to  do 
its  duty  to  humanity,  or  will  go  farther  to  qualify 
itself  to  understand  that  duty  and  discharge  it. 
This  war  is  our  school  of  duty,  where  we  are  to  learn 
what  our  obligations  are  and  how  to  meet  them. 
In  both  these  branches  we  are  very  untaught,  but 
the  instruction  ahead  of  us  promises  to  be  efficient, 
and  we  are  not  unintelligent  or  unruly  under  dis- 
cipline. 

It  was  good  to  hear  our  President  at  last  unloose 
his  mind  on  the  behaviour  of  the  German  Govern- 
ment and  declare  before  all  the  world  that  in  such  a 
government,  following  such  methods,  we  can  never 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  403 

have  a  friend,  and  that  "in  the  presence  of  its  or- 
ganized power  there  can  be  no  assured  security  for 
the  democratic  governments  of  the  world." 

Those  words  Hne  us  up  at  last  where  we  belong. 
We  are  in  with  the  best  people  in  the  world  to  give 
the  Hohenzollerns  and  the  Prussian  Junkers  to 
the  kites,  and  backward  as  we  are  in  military  mat- 
ters, in  a  good  cause  we  are  worth  counting. 


April  19, 1917. 

THERE  has  been  a  good  deal  of  doubt  about 
President  Wilson's  qualifications  as  a  fight- 
ing man.  War  with  guns  and  soldiers  has 
seemed  not  to  be  his  line.  Mr.  Gilbert,  who  wTites 
from  W^ashington  to  the  Tribune,  remarked  not 
Mr.  Wilson  long  ago  that  "War  is  the  most  primitive 
as  a  thing   in   the   world,   and   Mr.   Wilson   is 

Fighur  ^j^^  least  primitive  man  who  ever  sat 
in  the  White  House."  Very  likely  that  is  so. 
Mr.  Gilbert  thought  that  IVIr.  Wilson  had  all  the 
primitive  lust  of  physical  combat  refined  out  of  him 
and  could  not  make  up  his  mind  to  go  to  war,  and 
so  his  Cabinet  was  making  his  decision  for  him. 
Mr.  Gilbert  recalled  Vera  Cruz,  and  how  hard  Mr. 
Wilson  took  it  that  some  American  bluejackets  were 
killed  there.  We  often  think  of  that.  AH  the  same, 
he  makes  his  own  decisions. 

It  seems  a  hard  case,  the  scholar  face  to  face  with 
war,  and  no  appetite  for  it,  and  his  blood  running 
against  it!  And  yet  Mr.  Wilson  is  not  alone  in 
having  had  "all  the  primitive  lust  of  physical  com- 
bat refined  out  of  him."  That  is  a  common  condi- 
tion. Never  was  war  so  abhorred  as  this  war  is 
abhorred,  and  the  people  who  hate  it  worst  are  to 
be  found  among  those  who  are  fighting  in  it  and  have 
dedicated  themselves  to  fighting  it  through.  They 
see  in  it  a  war  against  war,  and  they  feel  that  they 
must  win  it  or  perish. 

Mr.  Wilson  has  never  been  backward  in  doing 
what  he  wanted  to  do.  His  backwardness  has  all 
been  about  working  against  his  will.     His  will  has 

404 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  405 

been  against  war.  But  now  it  is  for  it.  A  great 
change  in  his  deportment  may  be  looked  for  as  a 
consequence  of  this  change  of  mind.  He  is  not  an 
ineflScient  man:  far  from  it.  Neither  is  he  timid. 
Mr.  Gerard  declared  the  other  day,  after  seeing  him, 
that  he  would  make  a  great  war  President.  That  is 
what  we  want  him  to  be,  and  what  we  hope  to  see 
him  become.  His  will  is  now  for  war,  and  he  will 
work  to  wage  it. 


May  17,  1917, 

IN  THE  observations  in  Life  on  the  sinking  of 
the  Lusitania  two  years  ago,  a  curious  investi- 
gator,  if   there  should   be  one,  would   find   it 
written: 

Of  all  the  lives  that  have  been  poured  out  m  the  great  war. 
Two  Years  ^*^^^'  ^^  ^^^  confident,  will  prove  to  have  been  ex- 
j^fl^j.  pended  to  more  fruitful  purpose  than  those  of  the  six- 

score  Americans  who  died  when  the  Lusitania  went 
down.     .     .     . 

This  is  the  greatest  disaster  that  has  befallen  the  German 
arms  since  the  retreat  from  Paris  last  Sep  ember.  Not  one  of 
those  thirteen  hundred  lives — not  a  baby,  not  a  woman,  not  a 
stoker,  nor  a  millionaire — will  be  wasted.  It  is  sad  about  them, 
but  at  least  these  non-combatants — and  especially  the  forty 
babies — have  done  a  feat  of  great  military  value.  By  their 
death  they  have  shocked  the  moral  sense  of  a  nation  that 
needed  a  shock  of  terrific  penetration  to  jolt  it  into  action. 

The  shock  was  a  long  time  in  demonstrating  its 
full  effect.  It  took  two  years,  lacking  a  month,  to 
get  us  actually  into  the  war.  The  Lusitania  lit  a 
slow  match.  At  times  it  glowed  and  threw  out 
sparks;  at  times  it  seemed  to  have  gone  out,  but  it 
reached  powder  at  last  and  our  country's  flag  is 
flying  on  the  Eiffel  Tower,  and  triple  cross  and  tri- 
colour hang  in  every  street  in  town  and  Fifth  Avenue 
is  double-decked  with  them. 

Providence  is  never  short  of  means,  and  there 
might  well  have  been,  and  doubtless  would  have 
been,  some  other  way  to  bring  us  into  the  war  if  the 
Lusitania  had  not  done  it.  But  as  it  was,  it  was 
under  pressure   of   that   shrieking   crime   that  our 

406 


THE  DIARY  OF  A  NATION  407 

government  riveted  itself  to  a  position  that  was 
dead  in  the  path  of  the  last  German  hope  of  victory, 
and  compelled  the  Germans  to  run  over  us  or  quit 
the  war  with  terrors  still  untried.  They  took  their 
time  and  that  was  very  trying.  We  and  our  Allies 
would  have  been  gainers  apparently  if  we  had  got 
in  eighteen  months  sooner.     But  who  can  tell.'^ 

There  might  not,  in  that  case,  have  been  so  many 
German  U-boats  as  there  are  now,  but  on  the  other 
hand,  Russia  might  have  missed  her  medicine,  some 
other  great  results  of  suffering  might  not  have  come 
to  birth,  and  our  own  performance  might  have  been 
much  more  difficult  to  handle  than  it  is  at  present. 

For  we  have  done  a  great  deal  in  eighteen  months; 
have  held,  for  one  thing,  an  exceedmgly  important 
election.  And  all  the  time  the  pathway  of  democ- 
racy has  been  opening  plainer  and  wider  before  the 
nations,  and  stronger  and  stronger  forces  have  been 
compelling  them  into  it.  It  was  a  slow  match  the 
Lusitania  lit,  and  it  did  burn  sluggishly,  but  no  one 
can  be  sure  it  was  too  slow,  unless  he  has  looked 
over  the  shoulder  of  Destiny,  and  read  what  is 
written  in  her  book.  Let  us  be  thankful  that  our 
long  night  of  waiting  is  over,  and  that  the  ghost 
of  the  Lusitania  no  longer  stands  reproachful  at  the 
bedside  of  a  supine  people  asleep  to  duty. 


THE   END 


THE  COUNTRY   LIFE   PRESS 
GARDEN   CITY,   N.    Y. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.00  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


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MAH    12  1938 


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